An entertaining and cute, if somewhat verbose, love story.
An ex-Bostonian falls for her Vermont neighbor in this small-town romance.
Hannah Spencer has had it with her current life. The 28-year-old was recently laid off by her Boston finance firm and isn’t sure how else to use her economics degree. A temporary respite comes in the form of her older sister, Molly, who needs full-time care for her two young children while she and her husband, Ted, both biologists, temporarily leave their Vermont home to undertake summer research projects in Patagonia. Despite carpools and emotional support courtesy of Molly’s best friend, Lea Harris, Hannah discovers that caring for 6-year-old Nora and 4-year-old Owen is equal parts chaos and boredom. To pass the time while the kids are at day camp, Hannah decides to build her niece and nephew a treehouse in the backyard using the expertise she picked up during a post-college volunteer stint in Kenya. Soon, Hannah finds herself attracted to neighbor Nathan Wild, a handsome IT specialist who’s recently relocated to be closer to his loving, boisterous family. Nathan is intelligent, charming, and great with Nora and Owen, and his chemistry with Hannah is off the charts. But Hannah knows this summer fling can’t last forever: What about the rest of her life? Job prospects aren’t exactly flush in this corner of the universe, but can she and Nathan make it work? And will a catastrophic natural disaster change things forever? Drake writes primarily from Hannah’s perspective, with a few chapters from Nathan’s point of view. They are a sweet couple, together and apart: smart, driven, and devoted to their families and, increasingly, each other. This is a relaxing read where the stakes are realistic but not overly stressful until the final section, inspired by Tropical Storm Irene. But the writing style is a bit long-winded and formal, and the author casts Hannah’s two romantic rivals in a bad light—drunk, overly flirtatious, or clueless in general—which feels unnecessary in an otherwise positive tale.
An entertaining and cute, if somewhat verbose, love story.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1647423513
Page Count: 320
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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