With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The emotional depths of this steamy romance will catch you by surprise.
A modern-day marriage of convenience resurrects old feelings between a burlesque-club owner and a baseball catcher.
Madden Donahue has only had eyes for Eve Keller since their paths first crossed back in high school in Rhode Island. In their youth, he was her self-designated protector, defending her against small-minded bullies who subjected her to relentless teasing about her dad’s strip-club business. Though she was the town’s punching bag, Eve eventually decided to embrace her heritage, taking over the club once she was old enough and turning it into a classier burlesque joint. Recently, however, Eve’s life has been turned upside down by two new arrivals—her niece and nephew are living with her while her sister spends some time in rehab. Keeping the burlesque club afloat is hard enough, but having two more mouths to feed is putting Eve’s bank account under major strain. Then, when Madden is signed as a catcher for the New York Yankees, he comes to Eve with a surprising suggestion: Marry him for access to his health insurance, so she and the kids will be taken care of. Despite the fact that Eve has secretly reciprocated Madden’s feelings for a long time, she only agrees to his proposal on the condition that their marriage stay a secret—and that they dissolve it after six months when the kids go back home. Now that Madden can finally call Eve his wife, however, he’s not about to let her slip through his fingers, but the clock is ticking on how long he’ll have to convince her that this marriage isn’t just for convenience’s sake. Bailey’s latest contemporary is brimming over with the spice and dirty talk that have become her trademarks, but Eve and Madden’s road to romance is a quieter, more emotional one than usual for her, rooted in internal dilemmas rather than external obstacles. There’s no question about whether these two will figure it out, and that assurance carries through the narrative, resulting in a breezy, low-stakes, yet surprisingly poignant read.
The emotional depths of this steamy romance will catch you by surprise.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780063380882
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Imaginative, impressive, and illuminating.
A 12-year-old girl determines to unmask a serial killer in this extravagantly ambitious story of small-town Britain in 1979.
On the surface, Miv’s life seems to belong to an idyllic bygone era: She and her best friend, Sharon, walk to school every morning, passing a “snappy Jack Russell” and stopping to greet Omar, “the man in the corner shop,” who calls them the “Terrible Twosome.” But danger lurks around the edges of these familiar paths and faces; it’s been a few years since the Yorkshire Ripper began murdering nearby women, and the women and girls of the town have started taking a little extra care when they’re walking late and alone. Margaret Thatcher has recently been elected prime minister, pushing certain strains of misogyny and racism to the forefront of conversations and village life. For her part, Miv is trying to adjust to her mother’s complete withdrawal from the family due to depression. When she has the opportunity to make a wish, she wishes to “be the person to catch the Yorkshire Ripper,” and so begins a series of events that will forge friendships, expose bigots, and culminate in both tragedy and catharsis. The scope of the book is significant, and Godfrey shows a masterful control of the sprawl. This is a novel about a particular time that looks both backward and forward. For Miv and Sharon, straddling the gulf between childhood and adulthood and beginning to learn who they are, it’s a coming-of-age story; for Britain, struggling to hold space for a strong female leader alongside her conservative and xenophobic policies, it’s equally a story of reluctant yet inevitable change. Despite some chapters told from other characters’ perspectives, this is very much Miv’s tale, and hers is one of the most engaging voices in recent fiction, both heartbreakingly innocent and incisively intelligent.
Imaginative, impressive, and illuminating.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781464249051
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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