A seriously sexy tale of toxicity and temptation sure to thrill dark romance readers.
A seductive tattoo artist and his feisty mentee tangle with temptation in this dark adult romance.
After Clyde Everhart’s death, his beloved Black Rabbit tattoo parlor is being expertly run by the two people he loved most in the world: Logan Teller, Clyde’s former apprentice and a skilled artist, and Kelly Everhart, Clyde’s strong-willed daughter, who’s eager to prove herself. Logan and Kelly have known each other for years, but their relationship has never crossed the line from best friends into something more. Logan is gruff, guarded, and sexy in an emotionally damaged sort of way, and Kelly “is five feet, two inches of pure edgy adorableness” with a smart mouth and quick wit. To Kelly, Logan is everything: best friend, mentor, protector, and something much more powerful that she can’t put her finger on. After Kelly starts getting serious with her dull boyfriend, Jason, Logan decides that he’s had enough of the friend-zone and takes a daring—and debaucherous—risk. Logan loves dangerously, possessively, and darkly, and as he and Kelly navigate their tempestuous entanglement, Kelly begins getting mysterious texts, letters, and gifts that threaten her art, her relationship, and her life itself. The heated pair ravage each other, in multiple ways, with a love “as gentle as it is destructive.” St. James’ fast-moving, quick-witted romance is both silly and downright sinful. In between playful scenes of friendship and shop talk are sexy photoshoots and blush-worthy dirty talk. On one page is a man deeply in love, and on the next, a man driven mad by possessiveness and obsession. The protagonists are toxic, filthy, and a bit more than morally gray, all in an entirely thrilling way—and their erotic scenes together are all that and more. Fans of dark romance with a side of questionable morality and depraved infatuation will love this erotic thriller.
A seriously sexy tale of toxicity and temptation sure to thrill dark romance readers.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798347018710
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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