Though the slow-burn romance is unbalanced, there’s a nuanced and intimate depiction of depression and caretaking.
A woman takes up residence in a “spite house” located four feet from the home of her ex-fiance’s brother.
When Athena Greydon buys her fiance, Johnny Vine, a “spite house”—a 10-foot-wide home created to annoy the neighbors—in his hometown of Harlot’s Bay, Maryland, as a wedding present, she isn’t expecting him to call off their engagement soon after. But, at the encouragement of his older brother, Matthew, who thinks she’s irresponsible, he does just that. Athena, though, has no desire to sell the impulsively purchased home. Instead, she’s going to move in and make Matthew’s life a living hell because he just so happens to be her new next-door neighbor. Despite everything Athena does to irk him, like blasting erotica audiobooks at full volume, Matthew remains surprisingly nice. Dade thoughtfully includes trigger warnings at the beginning of the book because, while Athena is drawn in all her chaotic and petty glory, she’s reckoning with a lot of intense emotions—namely, loneliness and heartbreak. She goes through an accurately portrayed depressive episode, which injects a heavy, sorrowful tone that contrasts with the rest of the book. Matthew is calm and caring, not wanting to add to Athena’s heartache while attempting to be mindful of their mutual connection to Johnny. The biggest downside of the book is Dade’s attempt to do too much. Pop culture references and memes are shoehorned into a mental health journey that often shifts the focus away from the romance. Some jokes run a little too long, and that space could have been used to further untangle the knot of Athena and Matthew’s complicated dynamic. Dade’s romances, though, routinely show that people contain multitudes and that life is about offsetting personal pain with things that bring joy, and this one is no exception.
Though the slow-burn romance is unbalanced, there’s a nuanced and intimate depiction of depression and caretaking.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780063215917
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
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
SEEN & HEARD
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