Sweet and sexy; an ideal beach read.
In this small town, two colleagues butt heads and hearts.
Mia Sparks loves Shell Grove, South Carolina, almost too much. She grew up there, has deep ties to the community, and found respite in her hometown after her divorce from her high school sweetheart. But Mia is restless; despite a college degree, she’s never had a career that sticks, and so far, her guest-relations position at The Sapphire, Shell Grove’s new resort, has involved fishing dead squirrels out of the pool. Enter sexy-as-sin Aiden Beaumont, with whom Mia has an eventful first meeting and can’t stop thinking about. The only problems? Aiden is Mia’s boss’s boss, and, as owner of The Sapphire, he’s public enemy No. 1 among the Shell Grove old guard, who are convinced a high-profile resort will ruin the simplicity of their beloved beach town. When Mia sees the potential in increased tourism and proposes creative solutions to get the entire town onboard, Aiden sees the potential in her—in both the boardroom and the bedroom. But for a small-town girl and a high-powered businessman, love can be complicated—even more so when a burgeoning new venture is also on the line. Can Mia and Aiden truly have it all? This is the first in the Shell Grove romance series from prolific author Munton, and there’s a lot of potential here. Quirky characters abound, from a trio of 60-something gossips who run the Southern Sisters Salon to Mia’s pals Maggie and Finn, best friends with romantic tension that everyone but them can sense. Shell Grove is a character in and of itself, with beautiful beach settings, Southern charm, and a clear sense of community. It’s no wonder businessmen like Aiden want to capitalize on the locale and why its loyal residents are so resistant to a big resort. Finally, Mia and Aiden have sizzling-hot chemistry, demonstrated many times over the course of the book, as well as their own believable personal and relationship obstacles to overcome.
Sweet and sexy; an ideal beach read.Pub Date: May 24, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-8158-0102-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.
A TV producer and a detective try to stop a strange pattern of young women disappearing.
In “Auclair, Loooziana,” disillusioned detective John Bowie reluctantly meets in a bar with Beth Collins, producer for the true crime show Crisis Point. She needs to interview him about the disastrous case of the missing Crissy Mellin, but he refuses. The teenager disappeared three years ago on the night of a blood moon and hasn’t been found, but a suspect hanged himself in jail after signing a confession. Case closed, says John’s boss. But John is convinced that their prisoner could not have been guilty, and he’s deeply upset at his failure. “The Mellin case messed up your life,” Beth tells him. She persuades John that Crissy’s disappearance is the latest of a series that happen on the night of a blood moon, the colloquial term for a total lunar eclipse. “It’s going to happen again,” she predicts. And wouldn’t you know, another blood moon is coming in four days. Tick, tick, tick. Beth’s boss at Crisis Point insists on airing an update on the case, but Beth knows the show is going to get it wrong, and its reputation will be ruined. Meanwhile, there’s an electric sexual tension between Beth and John that the author toys with nicely—do they, or don’t they? The answer plays out in detail more than once. The characters are fun if easy to pigeonhole: the detective angry at his failure, the honest (and beautiful) outsider eager to do her job but susceptible to love, the hero’s corrupt (to say the least) boss, and the ogre who carries out said boss’s dirtiest deeds. Even John’s dog, Mutt, plays a small but vital role. When John found him, he’d been “a flea-bitten hide wrapped around a skeleton that whimpered.” Little plot devices are easy to spot, like the phone that rings at a crucial moment, or the handgun that John places in Beth’s hand for her protection. Does Chekhov’s guideline apply here? The romantic angle leavens the dark theme, and readers will have plenty of incentives to turn the pages.
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781538742983
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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