An offbeat story that offers unexpected twists on a familiar setup.
A historical romance featuring a widow and an uptight British gentleman who find love.
As the story opens, it’s 1817, and Gareth Lockheart is listening to Sandford Featherstone, his guide to the behavior of the English aristocracy, talk about how many puppies he’d need to raise hunting dogs. All Gareth wants to do is get back to his investment projects, but in order to do business with the upper echelons of British society, he must learn to act like an aristocrat. He already has the lavish country house—it just needs the finishing touches, such as a beautiful garden. Widowed gardener Serena Lombard originally comes to Gareth’s country home to talk over possible design plans for improving the estate, but she leaves with total control over the whole design and construction project. She initially finds Gareth’s straightforward and humorless manner mildly amusing, but the more time they spend together, the more she realizes that her feelings for him run deeper. As time goes on, though, the two grow closer, and Serena begins to rely on him—and even reveals some of the darkness in her past. However, Gareth needs an aristocratic wife to be seen as a perfect British gentleman, and both he and Serena know that she’s not it. It soon becomes clear that their love might not be enough to keep them together. Spencer’s second novel in the Academy of Love series, following 2019’s The Music of Love, manages to feel original despite its very traditional opposites-attract storyline. This is due in part to the inclusion of Serena’s dangerous past, her young son, and Gareth’s desperation to fulfill a role that he doesn’t particularly care for. The attraction between the two main characters is clear from their first meeting, and their banter and occasional awkwardness around each other make for a consistently entertaining read. Serena’s past provides an exciting twist that will satisfy readers looking for something a little different in the historical romance genre.
An offbeat story that offers unexpected twists on a familiar setup.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-951662-02-8
Page Count: 329
Publisher: Crooked Sixpence Press
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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