The immaturity of the main characters sours some sizzling banter.
An aspiring writer butts heads with a stuffy academic as they’re routinely thrown together to celebrate their best friends’ milestones.
Natalie Shapiro is surprised when her longtime best friend, Gabby, says yes to a proposal from her boyfriend, Angus; they haven’t been dating for long and don’t even live together. Natalie meets Rob Kapinsky, Angus’ best friend, at the couple’s surprise engagement party. Sparks fly immediately when the two strike up a conversation: Rob is pursuing a Ph.D. in linguistics on the West Coast, and Natalie is a writer who’s decided not to get an MFA since she’s already working several jobs to pay off her student debt; although they both obviously love language and reading, they don’t see eye to eye when it comes to writing and academia. They reunite for Gabby and Angus’ wedding, where it’s revealed that Rob had panned Natalie’s debut novel on Goodreads, leading to a string of further bad reviews and jeopardizing a future book deal. This begins a pattern of Rob and Natalie turning up in each other’s lives at the behest of their friends and, despite sniping at one another, finding an attraction between them. The banter is fantastic, but Rob and Natalie are less than compelling leads. They’re rude, judgmental, and classist. For example, Natalie makes snide remarks about Angus’ looks in her internal monologue, which she uses to create a thinly veiled character in her first book. Rob is an academic from an academic family and clearly has some misconceptions about the “uneducated.” It will take a lot of work to get past these initial impressions; while the characters do inevitably grow and change to achieve their happily-ever-after, the experience isn’t entirely pleasant for the reader.
The immaturity of the main characters sours some sizzling banter.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9780593438213
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A charming dual-timeline romance about learning from past mistakes.
In Yarros’ latest romance novel, a young woman hires a handsome but infuriating writer to complete her late great-grandmother’s half-finished book.
After her marriage to a Hollywood producer ends in high-profile divorce, 28-year-old Georgia Stanton returns to her childhood home in Colorado. When she arrives at the house where she was raised by her great-grandma—the famous romance author Scarlett Stanton—she finds her mother, Ava, lying in wait. Georgia is in possession of the only unfinished manuscript that her deceased relative left behind, and her own mom wants her to sell the rights so they can get some cash. Georgia succumbs to the pressure and enters a deal in which another author will finish the book’s second half. The manuscript tells Scarlett’s life story, including how she found, and lost, her one true love. Georgia feels strongly that the finished novel must reflect the true events of Scarlett’s life, as difficult as they may have been. Unfortunately, the publishers hire Noah Harrison, a stubborn writer at the height of his career, who has his own fictional vision for the novel’s ending. As Noah and Georgia butt heads, each of them researches Scarlett’s history in England during World War II. As they learn more about Scarlett and Jameson Stanton, the fighter pilot she loved, Georgia and Noah must navigate their own increasingly complicated relationship. With two equally engrossing storylines, this book will draw in even seasoned romance readers. As the story jumps between past and present, the author also alternates present-day perspectives between Georgia and Noah, moving deftly between her characters’ distinct voices. The relationships are well developed, and the love that Scarlett felt for Jameson is especially palpable. Along with the sweetly romantic themes, the book explores several heftier topics, including personal ambition, grief, family discord, and self-esteem. The story has a few digressions that do little to advance the plot, but the main characters are sufficiently engrossing that readers will want to stick with them to the end.
A charming dual-timeline romance about learning from past mistakes.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68281-566-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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