A terrific romance, both poignant and funny.
A successful Atlanta sports agent must work with the man who broke her heart a decade ago.
Jackie Miles doesn’t want or need a relationship. She has great friends, a full client roster, and the best dog in the world. She also has a nemesis: rival agent Antonio Steele. Ten years ago, they spent one perfect night together in Las Vegas as he was shifting his career from NFL player to agent. The next morning, she overheard him making a suspicious phone call and left without asking him to explain—but all these years later, Antonio still considers Jackie his perfect match. The sports world is small, so if their paths cross, Jackie treats Antonio with icy professionalism. When a merger between their companies is announced, Antonio hopes that closer proximity will create new opportunities for courting Jackie. This is the second book, after Losing Sight (2025), in Richardson’s series exploring the relationship between a woman’s personality and her senses, and after an interaction with a stranger in the vet’s office, Jackie mysteriously loses her voice. The woman, a mystical figure calling herself Mother Mary, tells Jackie, “You need to quiet your tongue and speak with your heart.” Jackie is sure she’s been hexed, but readers will understand the malady is meant to teach her to listen rather than jump to conclusions. A voiceless Jackie needs help signing a boxer hiding out at a lush Mexican resort, and their agencies send Antonio along, hoping that together they’ll be able to land the new client. Antonio and Jackie reconnect and finally resolve the long-ago events in Las Vegas, but Jackie is too prickly and independent to let her guard down for long. Richardson adeptly creates sympathetic characters in a richly layered world while maintaining a light, humorous tone. Jackie and Antonio are each fully realized adults on their own journeys, which makes their romance and happily-ever-after all the more rewarding.
A terrific romance, both poignant and funny.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798998759635
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Generous Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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 charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.
A single mom winds up fake dating an incredibly wealthy man in her hometown.
Dolly Brick is back in her hometown of Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to help her dad and disabled brother manage their house and family business. As a 39-year-old single mother with multiple jobs—which now include working at the Brick Fish House—Dolly is always busy. When her mom left their family years ago, Dolly took over caring for her siblings and father and never really stopped. When she runs into Stewart Whitfield after making a shrimp delivery to his family’s mansion, she doesn’t think they could be more different. She’s had to figure out how to do everything by herself, and he can’t even change a tire. That’s why Stewart’s proposal that she pretend to be his girlfriend feels so unbelievable—but it comes with a hefty check that she desperately needs for home repairs. So she becomes the fake girlfriend of Stewart Whitfield (as in, the Whitfields her town is named after; his real fiancée just dumped him and it’s a bad time for him to be single) and experiences what it’s like to walk into fancy buildings through the front door instead of the service entrance. More than the boats and helicopter and expensive dinners, though, Dolly is impressed by what a kind man Stewart is—and how it feels to let someone else take care of her for a change. Soon, their relationship starts to feel more real than fake. Monaghan creates an impossibly winning story with a charming, lovable heroine. Dolly is capable, hardworking, and will do anything for the people she loves. She and Stewart both possess real flaws, and while their relationship begins with one of the most beloved rom-com tropes, their challenges feel like realistic adult obstacles rather than easily solved miscommunications. It’s also refreshing that, even though Dolly must learn to allow other people to help her, she never views her caretaking responsibilities as burdens. She deeply loves her family, and that love carries through the entire story.
A charming love story that absolutely radiates warmth.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9780593853979
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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