This lovely debut about mature characters manages to be both comforting and sexy.
A divorced mom gets a second chance at love when she accidentally takes up a new hobby—birding.
After leaving an unsatisfying marriage that made her feel small, Celeste Johanssen is putting herself first. Her daughter will be leaving for college soon, and Celeste is ready to finally find out what it means to live for herself, not a man. When a new friend asks her to be his friend John’s temporary fake girlfriend, Celeste is happy to take on the challenge. However, when Celeste shows up to meet John, it turns out he has no idea what she’s talking about—he needs a partner for a six-week birding competition, not a fake life partner. But Celeste is full of motivational sayings and she’s ready to say yes to life, so she decides to be John’s partner in the competition—despite the fact that she knows nothing about birds. John doesn’t mind making his ex-girlfriend, a fellow birder, jealous, and Celeste knows that a new “boyfriend” will deter all the busybodies who keep asking when she’s going to start dating again. As John and Celeste spend more time together, both on birdwatching expeditions and at Celeste’s work events, they can’t deny that they have more in common than a shared interested in identifying bird calls; they also share a powerful chemistry, and soon they’re involved in a temporary relationship that’s just “birding with benefits”—perfect for both of them, since John is still bruised from his painful breakup and Celeste isn’t ready for a commitment. But as their feelings grow stronger, they’ll have to decide if a real relationship is worth the risk. Debut novelist Dubb brings in just the right amount of birding detail—enough to make the competition realistic, but never so much that attention is taken away from Celeste and John’s budding romance. It’s refreshing to read about adult characters with established lives, and Celeste and John’s relationship feels realistic as their largest obstacle is their fear of being vulnerable, not any sort of plot contrivance or miscommunication.
This lovely debut about mature characters manages to be both comforting and sexy.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781668037836
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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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