A heartwarming and nuanced second-chance love story.
Longtime friends navigate the tricky waters of love in this contemporary romance.
Juliet “Jules” Branch Bartlett is a fiercely independent mother who works as a commercial fishing captain in her hometown of Bodega Bay, California, where she lives with her parents and 11-year-old daughter, Bella. Six years earlier, Jules left her philandering husband, Wayne Bartlett III, and returned to Bodega Bay to build a new life for herself and her child. She has the support of her parents, siblings, and longtime family friend Tyler Pace, a wealthy entrepreneur and the business partner of Jules’ brother, Drake. Tyler and his younger brother, Dylan, had a childhood marked by poverty, during which their mother abandoned them. Tyler maintains a residence in San Francisco but returned to Bodega Bay to care for his alcoholic father and help him recover from a devastating accident. Although Tyler’s in love with Jules, she keeps him at arm’s length, wary of getting involved with someone whom she sees as a smooth-talking charmer. But when they both attend the same wedding, it leads to a night of passion, and Jules and Tyler must decide if true love is worth the risk. Ewens presents a briskly paced romance with colorful, well-developed characters. It also expertly balances the lighthearted aspects of Jules’ and Tyler’s relationship with the serious issues they both face. Both are amiable people whose friendship is punctuated by witty and playful banter (“You’re never late,” Jules says to Tyler at one point. “Someone tied to the railroad tracks or trapped in a school bus?”), which allows Ewens to showcase her sharp prose, as when Jules hopes that Tyler will “say something obnoxious to distract her from the fact that he smelled particularly delicious today.” Their relationship unfolds gradually, giving the author plenty of space to explore the characters’ history from grade school to the present. Overall, the storytelling is dynamic and multilayered, including subplots involving Jules’ former husband, Wayne (whose wedding the main characters attend), and Tyler’s troubled dad, and Ewens handles it all with a high degree of sensitivity and empathy.
A heartwarming and nuanced second-chance love story.Pub Date: June 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73232-165-6
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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