Plenty of humor and a great heroine are pluses in this unevenly paced romance.
A romantic comedy with plot elements from The Proposal and Crazy Rich Asians.
Bridget Nolan, an assistant state’s attorney in Chicago, is “supersmart, no bullshit, and hard as nails.” Raised by her South Side Irish dad and older brothers after her mom abandoned the family, she is totally focused on prosecuting sexual assault cases and crimes against children. She reluctantly agrees to take on Chicago law student Matt Kido as a summer intern only because his connections might secure her a fellowship that would pay her student loans. Matt’s family is politically connected (his grandfather was a senator from Hawaii) and wealthy, which is why they are shocked when he turns down a cushy associate position to intern with the state. Matt is more keen to avoid his cheating ex and defy his parents’ expectations than to be a public servant, but one look at Bridget and he's smitten. The attraction is mutual, so when the internship ends, Bridget invites Matt to her brother’s wedding in Vegas, the better to show up her jerk of an ex-boyfriend, who will also be there. They end up getting drunk and married, having sex, and then deciding to stay together to piss off their relatives until the state of Illinois allows them to divorce. Along the way, they banter, have sex, and fall in love, which scares Bridget: “If she couldn’t make the necessary compromises for [her ex], who had grown up the same way she had, what hope did she have with someone like Matt? Matt lived in a whole other stratosphere.” While Bridget’s ballsy prosecutor persona is described rather than illustrated, she and her family are, on balance, fully developed characters, and readers of Not the Girl You Marry (2019), the first book in the series, will find their return very welcome. Except for his infatuation with Bridget, Matt is underdeveloped, and his ambivalent feelings about his family’s wealth wear somewhat thin. His disapproving Japanese American mother and blonde, rich, pouty ex-girlfriend are caricatures.
Plenty of humor and a great heroine are pluses in this unevenly paced romance.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0270-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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
SEEN & HEARD
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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