An uneven entry into the STEM romance subgenre.
Business and pleasure mix when an engineer discovers her icy boss is actually the charming gamer she’s bonded with online.
Elizabeth Gordon-Bettencourt is starting over. She’s setting boundaries with her family and taking the first step toward her dream job as a civil engineer by accepting a competitive internship. But since her stepfather is chief executive of one of the country’s largest movie production companies, she’s worried that her name is the reason she got the internship. Lincoln Carden prefers to work alone and isn’t thrilled about having to manage an intern. He’s no-nonsense and makes it clear he finds Elizabeth to be an extra responsibility he didn’t sign up for. What Elizabeth and Lincoln don’t realize is that they’ve already built a years-long friendship and flirtation in online gaming spaces. Elizabeth is pretty much the same online and in person, but Lincoln feels more confident with the anonymity his username affords him. No amount of prodding by Elizabeth (@pancakesareelite) has been successful in getting Lincoln (@theanswerisno) to meet up in person or even exchange photos. The couple’s tension at work combined with their secret online identities add some sizzle to this slow-burn romance, but the settings and lopsided characterization are a major distraction. The gaming elements are disappointingly thin, mainly a bunch of pop culture references and chat exchanges at the start of each chapter instead of a fully fleshed-out part of Lincoln and Elizabeth’s relationship. The chats rarely paint a larger picture of what their online community looks or feels like. Then, in the physical world, the power imbalance between the characters and the hostile work environment, in which Elizabeth is the victim of repeated harassment, casts a shadow over the story. Lincoln’s difficulties with ADHD are impactful and relatable, but Elizabeth’s family struggles and personal challenges aren’t treated with the same depth and detail.
An uneven entry into the STEM romance subgenre.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9781538768402
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 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
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.
A Seattle woman meets a Chicago businessman as she flies home from a visit to a friend, and her small act of kindness blossoms into more.
Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier, she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store, working with her uncle. Her older brother, Sean, also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother, Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane, she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman, Chase Furst, turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother, to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books, Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part, as do traditional gender roles where women cook, clean, and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships, with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.
Light on plot and heavy on bolstering traditional gender norms as the ultimate goal for both men and women.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091676
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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