A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
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
An often captivating story that’s equally heartwarming and sexy.
In Harlow’s romance, when circumstances force a young woman back to her hometown after 10 years away, she finds herself reexamining abandoned friendships and lost love.
The book opens during Mila Ferguson’s last days in the small town of Hart’s Landing, where she recently graduated high school. She finally works up the nerve to kiss her longtime crush, Everett McKean, who stops by the bakery where she’s working, only for them to be interrupted by an explosion that sets the store ablaze. Believing herself responsible for the destruction, Mila leaves her quaint town and loses touch with her three closest friends, as well as Everett. Ten years later, Mila is living in Brooklyn, New York, and working as a botanical illustrator. Her mom calls to tell her that she’s having double hip-replacement surgery and will need her help afterward. Despite their turbulent relationship, Mila reluctantly agrees to come home, but from the moment she arrives in Hart’s Landing, she’s assaulted by memories from her childhood, including her abandonment by her father and her mother’s relentless pressure. She also runs into Everett everywhere. Their mutual attraction hasn’t abated, but Mila is reluctant to pursue Everett because she’s only in town temporarily and healing from a divorce. Even so, she can’t seem to resist his charm and devotion. As the two grow closer, she also tries to reconnect with former friends. Harlow mainly tells the story in chapters from either Mila’s or Everett’s first-person perspectives, and it’s an engaging tale, despite some unanswered questions. For example, the story of Mila’s third lost friend remains unresolved, as if forgotten, and the author never makes clear why the whole town is so thoroughly caught up in the mystery of a single workplace accident from 10 years ago—especially when they all seem to agree on the culprit. Mila’s fraught relationship with her mother also largely goes unexplored. Still, the chemistry between Mila and Everett jumps off the page, and Harlow renders the steamier scenes well; the main characters, as well as Hart’s Landing itself, are thoroughly lovable.
An often captivating story that’s equally heartwarming and sexy.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781682816660
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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