A winning romance about two lost and lonely souls who find each other.
A reclusive outcast falls in love with her new next-door neighbor.
Evan Miller is looking forward to starting over in the small English town of Ravenswood, where he has a job as a metalsmith, after 11 years in the military. Determined to get off on the right foot with his neighbor, he makes a shepherd’s pie as a way of introducing himself, only to be greeted at the door by prickly, aloof Ruth Kabbah. She’s lived in Ravenswood her whole life but sticks to herself—the townspeople think her autism makes her strange and believe the gossip that has labeled her promiscuous. Luckily, her job drawing web comics allows her to live in her pajamas and avoid everyone but her loyal sister, Hannah. Evan and Ruth become friends, sharing meals and endless hours of conversation every night. Although there’s a crackling chemistry between them and they share a steamy kiss, they agree that they’ll stay friends. Ruth is worried about ruining their friendship and Evan promises to give her space. Evan starts to piece together the story of her past and is determined to discover the role his smarmy boss played in her situation, but he resists meddling out of respect for her boundaries. This is a new edition of a novel Hibbert self-published in 2018, and it’s a showcase for her deft skills as a romance writer. Ruth and Evan are interesting, meaty characters, each with their own growth arcs. Ruth has never believed she could trust anyone other than her sister, but it’s impossible to turn her back on a man who demonstrates such love and respect for her. After years of feeling alone after the death of his mother, Evan realizes Ruth is the family he wants and is determined to fight for her. The pacing of the plotline about Evan’s boss is uneven at times, but this sweet and sexy romance delivers.
A winning romance about two lost and lonely souls who find each other.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464235368
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.
While on her sister’s wedding cruise, a woman enlists her childhood best friend for help as she attempts to woo her longtime crush.
JoJo Burton is bad at love. After she leaves her terrible fiancé, Pearce Richmond, at the altar, she’s convinced she might never settle down. But during her sister’s wedding, which is being held on an eight-day cruise to the Bahamas and Cozumel, she and her family concoct a plan that will help her seduce her recently divorced childhood crush, Finn Turner. The two of them once shared a blindfolded kiss that might have ruined JoJo for all other men, and she’s never forgotten it. But then JoJo’s best friend, Cooper Watts, shows up. Cooper and JoJo were inseparable as children but didn’t talk for years after she got engaged to Pearce. She doesn’t know why he suddenly disappeared on her, but it doesn’t matter—he’s here now, and she needs him to help her get Finn to reenact that long-ago kiss. But after she and Cooper share a cabin, get thrown together for every wedding week activity, and even engage in the classic friendly flirting meant to make another man jealous, JoJo starts to realize that Finn might not be the man she’s been waiting for, after all. Center keeps things light, focusing on humor even when the subject matter veers into family drama. JoJo and Cooper find themselves caught up in the sort of tropes that are catnip for romance fans—he takes care of her when she has a sunburn, for instance, and they participate in a slow-dance contest. As Center reveals in an author’s note at the beginning, “Spoiler: This book will end well.” The destination may not be a surprise, but the journey is a delight.
A fun, positively frothy friends-to-lovers romance.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781250408051
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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