A poignant romance perfect for fans of Josie Silver and Bethan Roberts.
British author Daverley follows a young man and woman through decades of their lives as they experience love, tragedy, and heartache.
At 17, Rosemary Winters hopes there will be more to life than studying for her exams and counting calories to please her mom. Her energetic twin brother, Josh, has big dreams—he hopes to attend Cambridge. He’s taken to studying math with the broody Will White, a bad boy with a reputation for sleeping around, an absentee mother, and no current plans to go to university. Will first noticed Rosie singing at a bonfire, with her ever attentive doe eyes and enchanting voice, and hasn’t been able to forget her since. Rosie, on the other hand, could never imagine a boy like Will being interested in her, especially with her keen attention to school and what her friend Marley calls a “vanilla virgin” personality. And yet, one midnight conversation at the Winters’ house leaves Rosie noticing Will as much as he's been noticing her. The closer Will and Rosie get, though, the further Josh seems to pull away from his sister, until tragedy strikes and leaves their budding romance in shambles. Suddenly, Rosie’s dream of attending music school and Will’s travel plans are cut short, broken by the secrets they share and a loss they can’t overcome. As years pass, the two lose touch and find each other in different stages of life, but somehow, their attraction never wanes. Daverley’s moving debut outlines a lyrical story of unspoken words and one unending love: “But her voice keeps him awake that night. And again, the night after that.” While Rosie and Will’s love story is fraught with heartbreak and change, and although the journey is almost always tumultuous, their evolving friendship and unbreakable connection prove entirely worthwhile and real.
A poignant romance perfect for fans of Josie Silver and Bethan Roberts.Pub Date: June 20, 2023
ISBN: 9780593653487
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 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
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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