A deliciously fresh romance with strong characters and feminist themes.
A woman from a staid Connecticut society family moves to LA and falls in love with her roommate.
Clara Wheaton grew up in a household beset by scandal, and it turned her into a creature of habit and duty. As a young girl, Clara vowed to live quietly and never cause anxiety for her long-suffering mother. Now she’s 27 with a Ph.D. in art history and no idea what to do with it, so she moves to LA in a last-ditch attempt to win over the friend she’s had a crush on since they were teenagers. But when she arrives in California, her friend reveals he will be touring with his band for the summer, leaving Clara with an unexpected roommate, Josh Darling. Feeling too humiliated to return home, she decides to spend the summer in LA after being offered a temporary job at her aunt’s PR firm. Josh is a porn star, and he firmly corrects Clara’s misconceptions—and those of readers—about the adult entertainment industry. Clara is worried that her association with Josh will cause a scandal, but she loves the freedom of her new life too much to worry. They develop a close friendship but agree to ignore the sizzling attraction between them. Clara is outraged when she discovers that the powerful porn company Josh works for, Black Hat, is trying to blackmail him into a new contract. They decide to strike back at the company by creating a website with unabashedly sex-positive video tutorials that center women’s pleasure. Clara and Josh are likable characters trying to make the world a better place. Danan’s debut is a staunch rejection of societal shame about sex and pleasure—one that will speak to romance readers young and old.
A deliciously fresh romance with strong characters and feminist themes.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-10160-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.
A heartbroken man lusts after his therapist while seeking revenge on a drug kingpin and his enforcer.
Mitch Haskell’s wife, Angela, died two years ago of an apparent suicide, but Mitch has always believed the scene was staged. Certainly, she would never have willingly left their young son, Andrew, behind. Consumed with a thirst for vengeance, Mitch—a former Marine and undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and currently a police detective—is struggling with alcohol dependency and uncontrolled rage. Andrew is living with his in-laws, who are making not-so-subtle suggestions that they might apply for permanent guardianship if Mitch can’t get it together. So his boss and best friend, John Bowie, mandates that he go into therapy, which puts him in the path of sexy Dr. Dylan Reede. Within a few days, Mitch makes a connection between two new murders and the death of his former partner; finds a big clue that points to the truth about Angela’s death; goes undercover as a homeless man; takes on a vicious drug cartel; and obnoxiously bullies Dylan with a charm offensive that leads them inevitably to bed. While Mitch seems to lean into the stereotype of the ex-soldier/cop with deeply buried trauma who believes that the ends justify the means—at least in law enforcement—Dylan offers the strength and sweetness to help him start breaking down his walls, allowing herself to be vulnerable in turn. Is passionate sex enough to ground a relationship and a family for the long term? For these characters, and the breakneck speed of this thriller, it’s as good a foundation as any.
Two hot people confronting their trauma, making passionate love, and solving violent crimes! ’Nuff said.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781538743027
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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