A fun book worth reading for its inventive magical world.
A woman returns to her New England hometown and discovers that she's part of the supernatural world.
Cassandra Camberwell had an idyllic childhood in the small town of Hollow Brook, but when she was in high school, her lifelong best friend, Seth Brubaker, started bullying her in an effort to fit in with the popular crowd of mean boys. Soured on the town, Cassie stayed away for a decade. Now she’s returned to clean out the home she inherited after her grandmother’s death and prepare it for sale. The first night she returns, Seth knocks on the door, insisting he needs one of her grandmother’s journals. After Cassie witnesses him going through a shocking physical transformation, Seth reveals that he’s a werewolf. He begs Cassie to try brewing the concoction her grandmother made to help him control his wolf. Cassie's potion is even more effective than her grandmother's was, and Seth realizes she must be a very powerful witch. Once she opens herself up to the possibility, Cassie discovers she can wield magical items and communicate with other magical creatures; she realizes she’s been suppressing her innate powers her whole life. Seth offers to teach her and guide her through this new world in exchange for her continued potion-making efforts. Readers will delight in Cassie’s gleeful discovery of the magical world, populated with zany, inventive details such as flying vacuum cleaners, fairies riding caterpillars who feed on thimbles full of honey, and a sentient microwave oven threatening legal action. Cassie’s romance with Seth lacks the same vitality and energy. They dance around their painful past, unable to communicate their true feelings. Only after the return of her other high school bullies does Cassie realize that Seth feels more for her than friendship. Their romance is rushed and underdeveloped compared to the rich magical world they exist in.
A fun book worth reading for its inventive magical world.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781250352330
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
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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