A charming dramedy featuring a promising sleuthing duo.
In this mystery/romance, a woman whose longtime crush just married her sister escapes to her godmother’s crumbling castle in France only to encounter the snarky best man in residence.
New Yorker Merry DeLuca is dreading walking down the aisle. She is a bridesmaid at her sister Angela’s wedding but has been friends with the groom, Leo Fernandes, for years and is secretly in love with him. She was finally going to confess this to Leo when, alas, he met the more beautiful Angela. Further aggravating matters is Leo’s best man, Noah Wright, a famous travel documentarian. A pre-wedding meeting did not go well, with Merry spotting that the guarded, watchful Noah dumped her gift of wine in the trash. At the wedding, stressed-out Merry gets drunk and flirts with Noah, waking up the next day in a hotel room to find him sleeping beside her. She sneaks out and faces further challenges. A human resources mediator, she has to fire a lot of people, and then Angela announces that she’s pregnant. So Merry quits her job and follows her unconventional godmother Jupiter Mountlake’s advice that “you’re allowed to escape if your life is in a trash compactor.” Merry goes to stay at the French countryside chateau that Jupiter purchased. Unfortunately, the place is a dump, and worse, Jupiter rented the chateau to Noah. Amid missteps, Merry and Noah learn to open up to each other and uncover a painting by a renowned missing artist, providing new clues for Noah—the vanished artist turns out to be one of the underlying reasons for Noah’s travels.
Ready has written a tale that deliciously taps into its French trappings. Merry enjoys pungent cheeses and the attentions of a handsome local art gallery owner called—but of course—Pierre. Yet this novel also includes psychological nuances that enrich what could have been simply a rather glossy and superficial story. Lead couple Merry and Noah are sketched out with childhood backstories that explain their wary natures. Even secondary characters Angela and Leo return for their own revealing twists, including one on the Lovers’ Bridge that figures prominently for several reasons in the tale. The mystery weaving through this romance gets overly convoluted at times (What took Noah so long to get to this chateau?). There are also a lot of rather fortuitous, just-in-time entrances by other characters who block Merry and Noah at critical moments. But overall, it’s hard to resist a story with a female hero who reprieves a lobster and realizes that Angela’s appropriation of what Merry first desires is a pattern (“I know that look. It’s the red bike look”). The novel’s final moments, which bring together the characters in an emotionally satisfying way, update the book’s opening scene. Merry and Noah would certainly make for engaging detectives unraveling mysteries in future installments. His roaming adventures could be aided by her mediator skills, which come in handy during a tense moment with Pierre in this tale. Indeed, Ready perhaps hints at this future with Merry’s final note: “Don’t forget to watch his latest episodes, where we travel to all the most romantic locations in the world—the Amalfi Coast is next.”
A charming dramedy featuring a promising sleuthing duo.Pub Date: April 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781954007482
Page Count: 454
Publisher: W.W. Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.
A single mom winds up fake dating an incredibly wealthy man in her hometown.
Dolly Brick is back in her hometown of Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to help her dad and disabled brother manage their house and family business. As a 39-year-old single mother with multiple jobs—which now include working at the Brick Fish House—Dolly is always busy. When her mom left their family years ago, Dolly took over caring for her siblings and father and never really stopped. When she runs into Stewart Whitfield after making a shrimp delivery to his family’s mansion, she doesn’t think they could be more different. She’s had to figure out how to do everything by herself, and he can’t even change a tire. That’s why Stewart’s proposal that she pretend to be his girlfriend feels so unbelievable—but it comes with a hefty check that she desperately needs for home repairs. So she becomes the fake girlfriend of Stewart Whitfield (as in, the Whitfields her town is named after; his real fiancée just dumped him and it’s a bad time for him to be single) and experiences what it’s like to walk into fancy buildings through the front door instead of the service entrance. More than the boats and helicopter and expensive dinners, though, Dolly is impressed by what a kind man Stewart is—and how it feels to let someone else take care of her for a change. Soon, their relationship starts to feel more real than fake. Monaghan creates an impossibly winning story with a charming, lovable heroine. Dolly is capable, hardworking, and will do anything for the people she loves. She and Stewart both possess real flaws, and while their relationship begins with one of the most beloved rom-com tropes, their challenges feel like realistic adult obstacles rather than easily solved miscommunications. It’s also refreshing that, even though Dolly must learn to allow other people to help her, she never views her caretaking responsibilities as burdens. She deeply loves her family, and that love carries through the entire story.
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9780593853979
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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