An appealing futuristic erotic romance.
A woman who needs to get her sex robot serviced meets a tempting repairman in Landon’s erotic novella.
Gwen is a scientist living and working on a space station orbiting the Earth at an indeterminate time in the future. She’s disinterested in romance as long as she’s got her (second-hand, glitchy) “LovBot,” Frank-E. She thinks of the bot as “a woman’s best friend.” When Frank-E malfunctions, she calls Anders, an engineer and sex-bot repair hobbyist, to help her fix it. Anders is not confident the bot can be saved—the technology is old and the motor has basically melted—but he’s intrigued by Gwen, so he agrees to try. The repair job is complicated, so Gwen and Anders repeatedly meet as he tries various things to get the bot to work again. The attraction between the humans is mutual—things really escalate between them when Gwen jokingly offers to demonstrate how she uses her bot and Anders takes her up on it. As Anders continues to try to source the parts he needs to repair Frank-E, he also starts to hope he’s not successful, as he’s eager to ensure that Gwen never needs to use the bot again. (Gwen is reluctant to get involved with a live human after a bad experience in a previous relationship.) Can Anders convince her to retire her LovBot and try a relationship with the real thing? The sexuality in this story is frank, but in a refreshing way; there aren’t many inhibitions in this world. There are some elements of dominance and submission in Gwen and Anders’ relationship, and a lot of compelling tension between the characters. The love scenes are not just for titillation, but truly advance the plot as Gwen comes to realize that maybe she doesn’t need the bot after all. While this is an erotic story, at its heart it’s about a woman discovering she’s been in a rut, finding a way out of it, and learning something important about herself. The futuristic technology is imaginative and the story itself has a lot of charm.
An appealing futuristic erotic romance.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781963219005
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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 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
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