A by-the-book high school romance with a main couple that’s hard to root for.
While searching for clues to her father’s whereabouts, a young woman falls for a fellow student at an elite boarding school.
Emma Wiley and Henry Bennington first meet while catching the same flight from Frankfurt to Edinburgh, neither knowing as they sprint toward their gate that they’ll soon be classmates at Dunbridge Academy. Henry is a returning student and Emma is studying abroad for the year. Emma’s parents met at Dunbridge, but since their divorce, Emma’s father has essentially dropped off the face of the planet and she wants answers. She hopes that attending Dunbridge will offer some insight into her dad and where he’s gone. This is a standard high school drama, like something one might see adapted for the CW: New girl feels like a fish out of water among her popular and/or wealthy classmates while trying to solve a personal mystery. Something worth mentioning is that Henry already has a girlfriend, who arrives at the Edinburgh airport to pick him up. Grace is immediately welcoming to Emma, the newcomer, which makes the central romance hard to accept. Henry and Emma’s friendship quickly becomes romantic; both are overnight boarders at the academy, while Grace lives at home and attends school during the day. There are the usual scenes of Henry and Emma sneaking out of activities and having clandestine meetings at night, but keep in mind that both are aware that Henry has a girlfriend. It can be hard to root for a romance when infidelity is at its foundation, even though Emma and Henry are only 18 and especially since Grace is so supportive and likable. The only compelling part of the book is the inviting community environment cultivated at Dunbridge. There are touching scenes of mentorship, tearful reunions, and blossoming friendships.
A by-the-book high school romance with a main couple that’s hard to root for.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798893310832
Page Count: 464
Publisher: LYX
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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: today
A smart, steamy romance.
Tomforde’s sports romance pairs boardroom power plays with dugout drama.
As the youngest and only female owner of a Major League Baseball team, Reese Remington is used to pressure. Even though Reese is the granddaughter of the Windy City Warriors’ former owner, the men around her still question her position; she’ll “most likely have to work twice as hard and make [the] club’s success twice as noticeable to have any hope of being viewed as the right person to operate this team.” It doesn’t help that the franchise is bleeding money, the result of her grandfather’s hands-off approach in the years before his retirement. Reese must use her razor-sharp intelligence and fierce business sense to not only prove herself in a role in which the public is eager to see her fail, but also to make unpopular financial decisions to get the team out of the red. Enter Emmett Montgomery, a former All-Star turned field manager whose priorities lie firmly with people rather than profit. A man devoted to his team and his adopted child, Emmett has long since closed the door on romance, despite gentle nudging from his loved ones. His empathetic team-first mentality puts him immediately at odds with Reese’s pragmatic agenda, and with his contract up at the end of the year, Emmett worries he’ll be on the chopping block if he speaks out too much. Told from the perspectives of the leads, the novel gives equal page time to Reese and Emmett. Their concerns––the scrutiny Reese must endure as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and Emmett’s worries over his contract renewal––are tangible and add a sense of urgency to their every decision. While the novel includes some unavoidable exposition dumps to orient readers, it more than compensates by establishing clear stakes and a sense of momentum from the outset. The narrative successfully introduces credible barriers to the romance, which largely follows recognizable genre beats. The baseball setting is also used effectively, with the season-long arc mirroring the couple’s romantic and professional journeys.
A smart, steamy romance.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781649379795
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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