An intriguing but uneven love story.
An advertising hotshot locks horns with a former fling in this workplace romance.
Craig Keller’s life is complicated. Though he’s the sexy and successful owner of one of Los Angeles’ hottest ad agencies and has money to burn, the 40-year-old also has twice-weekly therapy appointments. He must finally deal with the traumatic death of his beloved older brother (not to mention Craig’s issues with his father) and a custody arrangement for his two young children with his ex-wife, a frigid former model. Things only get worse when Hayden Towne, the “agency siren” with whom Craig’s been enjoying a red-hot affair, reveals post-coitus that she’s leaving the agency and poaching his clients to start her own firm. Determined not to let Hayden topple him professionally, Craig approaches competing agency Mitchell Vance & Mercer about a potential merger, so together they can conquer the increasingly digital world of advertising. The only problem? One of the partners, stunning redhead Jane Mercer, is also an ex-lover of Craig’s—and as she’s now married, she doesn’t want daily contact with him. Though Jane relents and the merger proceeds, she doesn’t want anything to do with Craig until one fateful day when their tentative truce turns hotly physical. But what happens when the once-irrepressible bad boy starts catching feelings for his new colleague? Royce grew up in LA and once worked as a Las Vegas marketing and PR executive, and clearly the fast pace and constant drama of the world are as enjoyable for her to write about as they are to read. But it’s difficult to root for a character that is dubbed a “sexist pig” in the first few pages and, over the course of the book, does very little to remedy that image. Craig comments on the appearance of nearly every woman he encounters and crosses professional boundaries more than once—including a one-night stand with a potential business partner, an older woman whom he describes in insulting terms. He never really seems to change even when that stasis means hurting others.
An intriguing but uneven love story.Pub Date: May 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951130-77-0
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Dagmar Miura
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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