A charming romance of seemingly mismatched partners rendered with wit and heart.
A Boston businessman and the operator of a horse rescue farm in North Carolina clash and connect in Dodd’s romance novel.
In Mimosa, North Carolina, Boston real estate developer Gideon West hangs on for dear life as a “marauding mustang,” which his local contacts suggested he ride to inspect some land, bucks wildly out of control. A mocking red-haired woman appears, saves him by grabbing the reins, and leaves without revealing her name. Gideon soon learns that she is Everest Kennedy, the daughter of Mimosa’s mayor, who operates Second Chance Farms, which takes in neglected and abused horses.Everest is looking to expand her operations, and Gideon’s interest in the area is particularly worrying to her. Visiting her father to learn more about the situation, Everest runs into Gideon again, kicking off a series of interactions that progress from wary banter (particularly on Everest’s part) to full-blown mutual attraction. Everest agrees to a short-term dating relationship, initially to keep abreast of Gideon’s plans and to fend off her friends’ urging that she get a life outside of work. The couple’s relationship moves to the next level when Gideon whisks Everest off to Boston and his amazing condo. She then faces a new crisis; Everest could never leave Mimosa, and she can’t imagine Gideon giving up his luxurious city lifestyle. Gideon becomes obsessed with an ill-fated grand gesture intended to prove his love before his business partners propose a wonderful solution.
The author unspools this tale in fast-moving short chapters that alternate between Gideon’s and Everest’s perspectives, yielding often amusing results; Everest, intoxicated by Gideon’s cologne when socializing with him in a bar, notes to herself, “I needed either to switch seats or learn how to breathe through my skin like a frog.” Gideon, used to swaggering about in tuxedos at Boston social events, wonders how “I had become the guy who, in a span of less than twelve hours, had been thoroughly emasculated by a runaway horse, shot beer out of his nose in public, and was now covered from the knees down in a different horse’s nose vomit.” The rescue and care of horses are key narrative elements, beautifully rendered in several touching and dramatic scenes that also become occasions for Everest and Gideon to further bond with and appreciate each other. The progression to love made by these very different people is presented believably, with each character’s epiphanies about their true feelings teased out in part by commentary from the colorful cohort of insightful secondary characters, including Everest’s best friend, Cammie Givens; her father, Mayor Jackson Kennedy; and Leroy, her second-in-command at the farm.Gideon’s transformation from a rather cocky eligible bachelor to gesture-making supplicant is a particularly sweet and engaging aspect of this story; even his partners, introduced as frat-boy types, reveal themselves to be surprisingly wise and loving as they help him to find happiness. Dodd also has fun with romance conventions (Gideon’s grand gesture being the chief example), which the story both follows and regards with a wink.
A charming romance of seemingly mismatched partners rendered with wit and heart.Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9798986288048
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Sugar Beaver Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.
Best friends confront feelings for each other when they take a honeymoon trip together.
Francesca Gardiner and George Saint James have always been best friends—just like Jo and Laurie from Little Women, which they both love. Frankie has a big, complicated family and George was the boy next door who’d moved in with his eccentric grandmother. Their friendship survived childhood, awkward teenage years, and living together as young adults without ever venturing into the romantic—well, except for one kiss, but they don’t talk about that. When Frankie gets engaged to an older professor named Nate, George isn’t happy and a huge fight ensues. Despite his misgivings, George shows up to be her best man, but Nate leaves Frankie right before the wedding with only a cryptic letter. Devastated, Frankie goes to a friend’s house to recuperate, but her honeymoon is already planned and paid for—so she decides to travel to Tofino, a picturesque town on the coast of Vancouver Island, with George taking Nate’s place. Frankie wants to fix her friendship with George, but now that they’re in a romantic suite in a beautiful location, things are more complicated than ever. She’d always thought a relationship would be a bad idea, but she’s slowly beginning to realize they’ll never be able to go back to being kids. Maybe the only way forward involves forging a new kind of relationship. Fortune, the author of romances like This Summer Will Be Different (2024), returns with another love story full of longing and intense angst. The many allusions to Little Women are charming, and Frankie is a delightfully headstrong, feisty character. She and George have explosive chemistry, and Fortune manages to make the “will-they-or-won’t-they” nature of their relationship feel like life-or-death stakes.
A powerfully strong romance for readers who like their love stories full of torment and passion.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593953242
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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