A lively Regency romance that brings two lovable families together.
Two roguish children trap their parents within the happy ending the couple secretly wants.
Beckett Raines, Marquis of Hentrose, doesn’t want to get married again. He chose his first wife impulsively, and since she died in childbirth, he’s focused on raising their daughter, Rebecca. But his meddling mother continues to put women in his path, and she’s finally hit on an argument for remarriage that resonates: 9-year-old Rebecca is growing up and she’ll need a trusted woman to help. For once, Beckett’s not appalled by the woman his mother’s offering: Lady Pauline. However, moving back to London for the Season means he’s now living next door to Iris Silbern, a vivacious, opinionated, and penniless widow who’s also been thrust back onto the marriage market against her will. Rebecca and Iris’ 10-year-old son, Edmund, become fast friends, and though Iris and Beckett feel some sparks, they’re more focused on the realistic matches they’ve been roped into. After Rebecca learns that Lady Pauline is secretly awful and plans to send her to boarding school, she begs Edmund (and most of the household staff) to help her bring their parents together instead. But though Beckett and Iris grow increasingly close, it may be too late to extract themselves from their impending marriages. Enoch’s latest meets all the expectations of a classic Regency romance and then elevates the story by featuring the mischievous antics of Rebecca and Edmund. Though the story is primarily told from a standard, dual point of view, occasional extra perspectives add depth and whimsy. Don’t be mistaken; this is a story for grown-ups, containing several steamy scenes in addition to a serious consideration of the matrimonial trade-offs even privileged adults had to make in the era. But it’s an adult story that keeps one-upping its own hijinks as it goes along, culminating in an ending that would be ridiculously over-the-top if it wasn’t so satisfying.
A lively Regency romance that brings two lovable families together.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781250331205
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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