by Christy Carlyle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 28, 2021
A charming Victorian romance by the sea.
A spinster with a green thumb snags a duke with overgrown gardens.
Out in Cornwall, in the small shore town of Haven Cove, the Royal Visit Committee is hard at work. Princess Beatrice is coming to town in two weeks, and no one is more excited than committee co-leader Madeline Ravenwood, who runs her late parents’ nursery and almost a dozen other committees in town. She’s created a hybrid rose in honor of the princess for a botanical exhibition, and a royal approval could finally turn her business around. Also en route to Haven Cove: Will Hart, Duke of Ashmore, who has been ordered to relax in his family’s dilapidated Cornwall estate by his sisters. Exhausted from months of patching up the scandals and schemes his late father unleashed on their family name, he has avoided the Cornwall house for too long because of its notorious reputation and has no idea about the royal visit. When Maddie realizes the duke is in town, however, she visits and tries to convince him to stay and to take care of the estate, if only for the good of the town. He eventually agrees if, in exchange, Maddie will show him her favorite places in Cornwall. The agreement is for platonic relaxation only, of course, but both look forward to the trips more than they should. Even though she is a spinster and he must marry a perfect noblewoman to restore the Ashmore name, their attraction blossoms after a passionate kiss on their first boat ride and continues to bloom. Maddie has sworn only to marry for love, if at all, and Will has to return to London eventually, but as the royal visit draws closer, both find they don’t want their time together to end. The first in Carlyle’s new Love on Holiday series is catnip for lovers of small-town love stories, with engaging character development and a driven heroine. The beautiful Cornish scenery and botanical details are grace notes on a slightly spicy but mostly sweet story, and readers will look forward to future vacations in the series.
A charming Victorian romance by the sea.Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-305449-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Share your opinion of this book
More by Christy Carlyle
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Ali Hazelwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2025
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
Share your opinion of this book
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
by Abby Jimenez ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2024
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Abby Jimenez
BOOK REVIEW
by Abby Jimenez
BOOK REVIEW
by Abby Jimenez
BOOK REVIEW
by Abby Jimenez
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.