A Sapphic novel in which opposites attract offers a new twist on an old trope.
A bi indie bookstore manager agrees to a marriage of convenience with a bi romance cover model to save their family legacies.
Tansy Adams has been fibbing about having a girlfriend to fend off her pushy stepmother's demands. Then, at a family wedding, who should walk in but Gemma West, the romance cover model whose name and photo Tansy had appropriated to represent her fake girlfriend. It turns out she's actually Gemma van Dalen, a publishing heiress and estranged cousin of the man marrying into Tansy's family. Put on the spot, Gemma surprises everyone by going along with Tansy's lie and even—gasp!—proposing to Tansy in front of everyone. Suddenly, Tansy is saying yes to Gemma’s proposal, which will let her have the millions she needs to buy her late father's Seattle bookstore from her stepmother, who wants to sell it to a chain, while letting Gemma fulfill the terms of her late grandfather’s will. Former party girl Gemma is interested only in inheriting and running her grandfather's newspaper publishing empire, but she quickly finds her heart ensnared by the softer, more diffident Tansy. Once they learn how each other's families have hurt them in the past, they're both determined to protect their newfound mutual affection while turning their fake relationship into a real one. Bellefleur peppers the novel with callouts to the romance genre plus oddball supporting characters, including rich jerks who want to foil the two women’s plans. A backstory about how the groom sexually shamed Tansy in high school introduces a more serious theme, balancing out the weaker poor-little-rich-girl narrative given to Gemma. Text messages between the two women serve as romantic banter, while in-person sex talk and on-page sex scenes show the sparks of their chemistry. In the manner of Four Weddings and a Funeral or Notting Hill, a crisis delays the happy ending, and two grand gestures and a public proposal facilitate it. En route, the tale of two women battling corporate giants also takes on straight White male privilege.
A Sapphic novel in which opposites attract offers a new twist on an old trope.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9780063258495
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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