An enjoyable country-Western love story best suited for fans of second chances.
A widowed mom inherits a run-down ranch and develops complicated feelings for the man who helps fix up the property.
James’ novel opens with Hope Roberts’ new ranch hand quitting. He’s received a better offer of employment from a wealthier ranch owner. Much to her mortification, the young cowboy reveals his reasons for leaving within earshot of Dr. Dean Stanton, the incredibly handsome and wealthy physician who happens to be the son of the man who hired Hope’s employee. Not only that, but Dean is also the doctor who treated Hope’s now-deceased husband, Brian, who had cancer. Ever since Brian’s death, there’s been tension between Hope and Dean. Much to her surprise, Dean offers to fill in as the new hand around the house, but Hope is adamantly opposed. Given Dean’s duties as a physician, his responsibilities for his own rural home, and their icy relationship, it just doesn’t make sense. Even so, Dean seems to think his assistance is the best solution (“There’s no way you’ll find a more qualified cowboy than me”). He convinces her to let him complete one home improvement, and before she knows it, he’s turning the entire property around and winning over both Hope and her young daughter, Sadie. Hope refuses to acknowledge the feelings she begins to develop for him, worrying instead about all the reasons she thinks they could never be together, no matter how hard Dean tries to convince her otherwise. Told alternately from Hope’s and Dean’s perspectives, the opposing narratives slowly reveal the protagonists’ complicated personal histories and the obstacles they face in pursuing their own happiness. A seemingly lighthearted read with much attention centered on the characters’ physical attraction to each other, the novel also tackles weightier topics like mortality, parental responsibilities, grief, and guilt. Chock-full of details about ranch living and the endless work required for maintaining remote rural residences, the story remains focused throughout on the push and pull between the two main characters. Despite the tale’s formulaic and predictable trajectory, readers will enjoy accompanying Hope and Dean on their heartwarming journey.
An enjoyable country-Western love story best suited for fans of second chances.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1649373120
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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