A charming, compelling, and very queer Regency.
A valet helps his earl find a love match.
Christopher, Lord Eden, doesn’t mind at all that he has a reputation for eccentricity. He’s happy to live far away from London society on his estate, with just a cook and a butler who are more like family than staff. He had decided to live the rest of his life like this, in fact, until his lawyers notified him that he absolutely has to get married before his next birthday, or he’ll lose his inheritance. He’s anxious about this for several reasons, first and foremost because he is a “man of unusual make”—other people would see him as a woman, even though he most decidedly is not. For the sake of the estate, though, Christopher decides to do his best to find a match during the Season that’s already well underway, and, hoping to seem more typical while in town, he asks the lawyers to hire him a valet. When that valet, James Harding, arrives, it seems that the two men couldn’t be more different. Where Christopher prefers to eat breakfast in the kitchen with his staff, James doesn’t even allow himself to joke with his employer. For Christopher, it doesn’t help matters that James is “too perfectly formed to be alive.” As they relocate to London and sort their plans out for the Season, the gentleman and his gentleman start to settle into a tentative friendship, but even though both are working toward finding a match for Christopher, the more they learn about each other, the less either wants to focus on a wife. With Christopher and James’ story, Alexander’s first historical romance takes a daring leap into the Regency, providing a thoughtful, wholehearted exploration of trans life in another era. An agonizing slow burn tumbles into a quick climax, in more ways than one, the suddenness of which detracts from the tale; in addition, given how well-drawn Lord Eden is, it’s disappointing that the story never shares Harding’s point of view for balance. Alexander’s witty writing and excellent imagining of both the challenges and fierce joys of trans life in 1819 England are enthralling, though, and well worth the time of any historical romance fan.
A charming, compelling, and very queer Regency.Pub Date: March 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593686201
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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