A strong debut about characters who meet in the pause between pain and hope.
Skylar King is a college recruitment officer with a rare chronic illness. Brandon Pike is a former pro snowboarder whose career ended in a very public accident. With pain setting the pace of their relationship, will they have the patience to learn one another’s rhythms?
The most important parts of Skylar’s life happen online, in the support group for people with chronic pain she started with her friends. It’s where she can be herself without having to worry about being professional or polite. Pike is an Olympic athlete whose entanglements with women are almost as legendary as his skill on the slopes. He finds much-needed anonymity in Skylar’s group until his mother pops up, responding to one of his posts on New Year’s Eve. Misinterpreting Pike’s raw grief for suicidal ideation, she threatens to call the police for a wellness check if he doesn’t call her. When Pike doesn’t respond, Skylar, trying to help, writes that she knows he’s fine because he’s asleep in her bed. Which is, to say the least, not true. And Pike is not happy, having always promised to tell his mother if he ever started dating someone. To make his mom stop hovering, Pike lightly blackmails Skylar by threatening to tell the other group admins what she did; thus, they enter a two-month fake-dating situation. Unlike the protagonists of many romance novels, Pike and Skylar get gritty—honest about their physical obstacles and very real about things like medical misogyny and toxic positivity. This book is also an extremely slow burn that pays off exponentially. The sex is super hot. Because Skylar and Pike learn early to communicate about pain and limitations, they’re great communicators by the time they do eventually hook up, which makes for some steamy dirty talk. Together they learn that while chronic illness comes with restrictions, their desire for one another does not.
A strong debut about characters who meet in the pause between pain and hope.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781538771570
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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
A deep and moving portrayal of first love.
Two college students rekindle their relationship as they unravel the truth behind their breakup.
On the outside, college senior Bennett Reiner has it all. A goalie for Waterfell University’s hockey team, he lives with a group of friends in a luxurious off-campus house. He and his best friend, Rhys Koteskiy, have fathers who are retired hockey legends. But on the inside, he’s falling apart. Struggling with OCD, a shaky friendship with Rhys, and second thoughts about pursuing a future in hockey, the only thing keeping Bennett afloat is also the one thing breaking his heart: Paloma Blake. All dyed-hair and attitude, Paloma has built a bad reputation on the hockey scene since their relationship ended freshman year—but Bennett knows the real P. Underneath her promiscuous facade lies a scared and lonely girl running from a childhood of abuse. When they were together, it seemed like their romance was perfect, until Paloma broke it off without warning. Since then, Bennett has run to Paloma’s side whenever she needed him, whether she was drunk, lonely, or hurting, and now he’s determined to win her back. For Bennett, Paloma is his antidote, the cure for his compulsions; for Paloma, Bennett is her protector, her safe space. And though Paloma yearns to be with Bennett again, she’s not sure she’s willing to open old wounds and reveal the truth about her painful past. In the third installment of the Undone series, Corinne spotlights familiar characters as they navigate trauma, heartbreak, and first love. Bennett and Paloma’s relationship is raw and vulnerable, and their journey of relinquishing control is both necessary and inevitable. Their romance evolves as they open up to one another, and in return, the reader is rewarded with a love story that’s as lyrical, evocative, and emotional as poetry.
A deep and moving portrayal of first love.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781668219423
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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