An overstuffed rom-com with strong emotional depth.
In Alaska to escape her angry fans and write a murder mystery, a popular romance author finds the one thing she never expected: a chance for her own Happily Ever After.
Margot Bradley is known for her swoony love stories, but she doesn’t actually believe in true love; she secretly writes different, bitter endings for her characters, which she keeps in a document titled Happily Never After. When her computer is hacked and the file is released to the public, her fans turn on her and Margot finds herself canceled. To help her figure out what to do next, her sister, Savannah, who has a "cocktail of autoimmune disorders" and lives with Margot, books her a six-week stay at an Alaskan lodge—Margot had been planning to write a romance set in Alaska, but now she can take that trip to research a pivot, instead. When she arrives, Margot quickly realizes that not only is she in for a much more remote and rugged adventure than she’d expected, but the lodge’s proprietor seems to have walked right off the pages of one of her books. Dr. Forrest Wakefield has returned home to Alaska to care for his ailing father even though he was on the brink of a major breakthrough in cancer research back in Los Angeles. Now he spends his time working as his father’s personal physician and leading the guests on outdoorsy excursions. Forrest vowed to never get romantically involved with a guest, but his attraction to Margot keeps growing until it becomes impossible to ignore. This debut romance is beautifully written, nicely balancing humor and heat with realistic drama and conflict. Lavine is aiming for a meta-romance as Margot finds herself falling into various trope situations, but while these scenes are often funny, the book isn’t doing anything new with those tropes and they sometimes feel shoehorned in. Margot and Forrest’s roles as caretakers to their relatives, however, ground the story in deeper emotion and lead to refreshing attitude shifts and insights for the characters.
An overstuffed rom-com with strong emotional depth.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781668079270
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
PERSPECTIVES
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.
A happily engaged woman is pulled back to her hometown—and her first love—when tragedy strikes.
Billie Wright is living her dream, running a thriving fertility clinic in New York City and engaged to a wonderful trauma surgeon named Dean. Her happily-ever-after meant giving up her life in Wisconsin, where she left behind many friends as well as her high school sweetheart, Mick. Although they’d been deeply in love, when Billie’s ambition pulled her away from home and toward the city, Mick couldn’t handle either the distance or her busy schedule. Billie has finally moved on from that heartbreak—but then she receives a phone call from Mick, the first communication between them in years. Her best friend, Erin, died in a car accident, leaving behind an 11-year-old daughter, Phoebe. Now Billie must return home to help sort Erin’s affairs and provide some kind of comfort to Phoebe while grieving the loss of her best friend. Of course, being back home also means being in close contact with Mick. Their feelings for each other may not have ever gone away, and their proximity leads to big decisions for Billie. Can she ever reconcile her current life in Manhattan with her past in Wisconsin? And which one will be her future? Giffin knows how to do drama, and she ratchets up the stakes with every page as she continues to reveal new obstacles for Billie. The ending wraps up quite neatly, but the nostalgia-filled ride is full of twists and turns that will keep readers flipping the pages.
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780593600320
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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