A fresh rom-com with small-town charm and sparkling main characters.
In the second installment of Liasson’s Blossom Glen series, a bighearted therapist and a reluctant mayor clash and then fall in love.
Juliet Montgomery and Jack Monroe are “fixers” by temperament and reputation. Juliet has started a marriage and family therapy practice after years of study inspired by a bout with serious depression as a teenager following her father’s death. The only problem is, her fellow townspeople of Blossom Glen, Indiana, are aware of Juliet’s multiple broken engagements and are reluctant to accept relationship counseling from her. Meanwhile, Texas transplant Jack has successfully become Blossom Glen’s mayor, leaving behind his dreams of a career as an architect in order to help the beloved grandmother who raised him. However, Jack’s people skills are severely lacking. When a suddenly underemployed Juliet stumbles into a town meeting and helps Jack resolve several conflicts among Blossom Glen’s quirky and spirited residents, Jack decides to employ her as a temporary “town counselor” while he tries to save his grandmother’s land from the Omnibuild corporation. Soon, a coworking relationship becomes much more, but Juliet has resolved to curb her emotional spontaneity and Jack is wary of getting serious owing to trust issues stemming from his mother’s abandonment and his father’s unreliability. Can Juliet and Jack make it work and help preserve Blossom Glen? This series entry is a quintessential small-town romance that provides gentle humor and strong character development in abundance. Both Juliet and Jack are intelligent, accomplished, and deeply sympathetic to their friends’ and loved ones’ needs; in Juliet’s case, those loved ones include her sisters Tessa (the pastry chef protagonist of 2022’s The Sweetheart Deal, now happily married and pregnant) and Vivienne, who’s newly returned from Europe and working at a Christmas store while figuring out her life. The novel’s heat level doesn’t rise above kissing, but the chemistry between Juliet and Jack is palpable, whether they’re butting heads over town politics or eating ice cream on a dock. Juliet is also appealingly devoted to guiding others through mental health issues.
A fresh rom-com with small-town charm and sparkling main characters.Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64937-142-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The forbidden romance trope fails because the conflict is so pedestrian.
A professional hockey player has feelings for the one woman he can’t have: his soon-to-be stepsister.
Sig Gauthier loves his job playing defense for the Boston Bearcats, and he’s proved himself a real asset to the team. When this season ends, he will renegotiate his mediocre, low-paying contract, one he accepted while injured and desperate for any team to sign him. When his father asks him to come to dinner to meet his new girlfriend, Sig decides to go, since it’s only a few hours’ drive to Darien, Connecticut, and he’s curious. On the way, his ancient truck breaks down, and he pulls into a country club parking lot where he meets Chloe Clifford, the most beautiful, alluring woman he’s ever seen. Chloe dreams of accepting a seat as a harpist at a conservatory in Boston; however, her wealthy, controlling mother wants her to stay in Darien. That night at dinner, Sig is surprised to find Chloe there—and when they discover their parents are planning to marry each other, they realize they can only be friends themselves. Sig encourages Chloe to come with him to Boston, where he rents her an apartment despite it being a massive financial burden. Several months pass. They long for each other, but studiously ignore their incendiary sexual chemistry and remain friends. When the press realizes that Sig’s biggest fan is his soon-to-be-stepsister, his new general manager tells him he must choose between Chloe or re-signing with the team. Everything rests on the premise that two people who meet as adults would be entering into a taboo, forbidden relationship because their parents are about to marry. Although Bailey does her best to sell it, the pretext keeping her characters apart is thin and underdeveloped. Chloe and Sig are wild for each other from the second they meet, which negates any attempt to create tension or conflict.
The forbidden romance trope fails because the conflict is so pedestrian.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780063380783
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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