The chaos of this promising contemporary romance never fully resolves.
After striking up a connection with a man who slides into her DMs, a seemingly confident London “plantfluencer” decides to catfish him when things get more serious.
From the outside, Artemis “Temz” Owusu has it all—she’s achieving new levels of success in her marketing career and her side gig providing online advice about plant care has started to take off, too. Though she’s a plus-size woman, her self-confidence means she’s never lacking for hookups, but what if she’s starting to want something more permanent? Enter Ruben Alexander, a handsome California-based tech entrepreneur and part-time crooner who’s just slid into her DMs looking for plant tips. Though her most recent potential boyfriend didn’t pan out, Temz decides there’s no harm in turning on the charm, and it doesn’t take long before their online flirting starts turning into something that feels a little more meaningful. In a surprising moment of nerves, Temz decides to catfish Ruben by sending him someone else’s selfies, unsure she’ll be able to win him over without adhering to more conventional beauty standards. The longer Temz’s deception goes on and the more serious her relationship with Ruben becomes, the worse she feels. When a work trip to California finally puts her in proximity to Ruben, it’s the perfect opportunity for Temz to confess the truth, but will she be able to work up the nerve? Yeboah’s debut romance tackles some tough topics—fatphobia as well as racism and microaggressions in the workplace and on the dating scene—but the plot has one too many pieces that ultimately bury the more compelling main romance. Between Temz balancing two jobs, friend-group drama, a difficult roommate, and the occasional hookup while she’s texting Ruben, the book becomes chaotic enough to match its title. Cutting a few of the side plots could’ve helped strengthen the book’s deeper themes and pacing.
The chaos of this promising contemporary romance never fully resolves.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781398721906
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Hachette
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 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
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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