A treat for fake-dating fans and happily-ever-after lovers alike.
A bisexual romance author burned by love and an anxious actress fake-date in hope of keeping their meddling friends at bay.
Iris Kelly is happily single, though her friends and family in Portland, Oregon, would have her believe otherwise. While she’d be perfectly fine entertaining one-night-stands at Lush, her favorite queer bar, those closest to her can’t seem to stop intervening in her love life. Iris is the middle child of an Irish Catholic family, squished between picture-perfect married siblings and a mother who constantly sets her up with both men and women. After her latest relationship ended with her girlfriend’s wife showing up, Iris is no longer in a happily-ever-after mood…to the detriment of her second romance novel, which has a deadline coming up. Stevie Scott is in a similar predicament; her best friend/ex-girlfriend Adri is now dating her other best friend, and they’re all working together on the same gender-bent production of Much Ado About Nothing at a local theater. Stevie, who battles anxiety, fears she will never get back in the dating game—not that her friends ever let her forget it. Feigning confidence, Stevie tries her hand at Lush and meets free-wheeling Iris, though the date doesn’t quite end in fireworks. But when Iris unknowingly shows up to audition for Stevie’s play, they realize they can teach each other a few things about romance and sex while appeasing their nosy friends for a couple of months. As they coach each other through the ins and outs of casual dating and wooing, Iris and Stevie begin to find it difficult to keep their ruse strictly educational. The third and final installment of Blake’s Bright Falls series features an eclectic and diverse, albeit overbearing, cast of friends. Iris and Stevie’s attraction to each other is palpable, and Blake masterfully weaves a tale of growth where friendship, confidence, and passion ensue.
A treat for fake-dating fans and happily-ever-after lovers alike.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9780593550571
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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