A light, quirky romance; the body-swap premise provides plenty of fuel for witty one-liners and emotional reckoning.
In Ready’s novel, when a would-be couple decides that they’re just too different to be together, the universe itself forces them to consider another perspective.
In the second installment of the Ghosted series, the author introduces Serena Otaki, who lives a chaotically wonderful life working at the Large Hadron Collider on the border of Switzerland and France while remaining unapologetically single (her true love is physics). But then she meets Henry Joule, a conventional Brit who looks forward to settling down. While their chemistry is palpable, Serena breaks things off after one passionate night together when she makes two horrifying realizations: She’s falling in love with him, and Henry is her new boss. Over a year later, Serena and Henry have settled into largely avoiding each other at work, until one stormy night when lightning strikes the control room and the two experience a cosmic event that somehow makes them swap bodies. From there, plenty of surprises and misunderstandings ensue. After the vegetarian Serena refuses to eat the meat that Henry loves so much (“Eat the sausage. I don’t want to be anemic when I get my body back”) and Henry discovers the wonders of female biology (“Henry is about to experience all the wonderful joys of my menstrual cycle. It should hit tomorrow or the next day, right after he’s had a crying jag, a load of cramps, bloating, and extreme cravings for peanut butter and chocolate”), their squabbling eventually turns into a mutual understanding that paves the way for them to do what they were meant to do the whole time: fall in love.
Serena narrates the vast majority of the novel in a voice that’s warm and funny, often directly addressing the reader. This is an unusual stylistic choice and one that the author pulls off with aplomb. The romance portion of the novel leans more heavily toward the sweet than the sexy, with some cutaway love scenes and one hilarious discussion about erections. From the opening line, when Serena declares that she’s “always believed that things are only impossible until they’re not. For instance: particle physics, space travel, and sex on a tree branch,” readers are given fair warning that the characters (and the plot itself) are filled with whimsy. That’s not to say that Ready doesn’t deliver some emotional punches along the way. As they’re forced to deal with each other’s major family events—including Serena’s mother’s emergency coronary bypass surgery and Henry’s brother’s wedding—the body swap compels them to finally talk to each other in an authentic, profound way. That’s when the novel moves beyond easy physical humor and into an insightful commentary on the impossibility of having it all: “I love too much. I only have room for one great love in my life. I’ve already chosen it. I don’t want to lose my dreams. I don’t want to lose everything for love.” This connection is only deepened when Serena and Henry begin getting flashes of each other’s memories, a phenomenon that urges them to have a reluctant conversation about how they want to move forward if they can’t actually find a way to swap bodies back.
A light, quirky romance; the body-swap premise provides plenty of fuel for witty one-liners and emotional reckoning.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781954007703
Page Count: 328
Publisher: W.W. Crown
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Bailey hits it out of the park with her latest spicy romance.
Two ambitious athletes plus one fake-dating arrangement—what could go wrong?
Though it’s only his first season for the Boston Bearcats hockey team, Robbie Corrigan has a well-established reputation as a playboy. He’s got major skills on the ice, and he’s also much more likely to love ’em and leave ’em than he is to build any long, meaningful relationships. Naturally, he’s just met the one woman who seems completely resistant to his charm: Skylar Page, a Boston University softball pitcher. When they meet over a friendly Saturday morning baseball game, Robbie instantly makes a poor impression by bragging to his teammates about his latest conquest within Skylar’s hearing. He thinks she’s gorgeous, though, and when he sets his sights on her, he’s surprised that she doesn’t seem to know it. Despite her initial distaste for Robbie, Skylar grudgingly confesses that she could use his help. If they pretend to date, maybe her current crush—her brother’s best friend—will finally sit up and take notice of her in a romantic way. The timing is less than ideal, since Robbie will have to team up with Skylar in the Page family’s latest wilderness competition, but it turns out that Robbie’s willingness to play fake boyfriend stems from some very real feelings. He wants to prove to her that he’s a changed man, and redeeming himself in her eyes starts with making sure she knows that she can really trust him. The latest addition to Bailey’s Big Shots series is a sexy, feel-good romance brimming over with the author’s trademark humor and dirty talk. While Skylar and Robbie’s dynamic doesn’t quite reach the level of enemies-to-lovers—he’s so head-over-heels for her that there’s no room for any real mean-spiritedness—their playful snark doubles as a welcome dash of foreplay in the lead-up to some seriously steamy scenes. Robbie’s efforts to show Skylar that he’s turned over a new leaf also result in some of the book’s best moments, emphasizing his commitment to becoming the type of man he knows she deserves.
Bailey hits it out of the park with her latest spicy romance.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780063380837
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.
A travel writer has one last shot at reconnecting with the best friend she just might be in love with.
Poppy and Alex couldn't be more different. She loves wearing bright colors while he prefers khakis and a T-shirt. She likes just about everything while he’s a bit more discerning. And yet, their opposites-attract friendship works because they love each other…in a totally platonic way. Probably. Even though they have their own separate lives (Poppy lives in New York City and is a travel writer with a popular Instagram account; Alex is a high school teacher in their tiny Ohio hometown), they still manage to get together each summer for one fabulous vacation. They grow closer every year, but Poppy doesn’t let herself linger on her feelings for Alex—she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or the way she can be fully herself with him. They continue to date other people, even bringing their serious partners on their summer vacations…but then, after a falling-out, they stop speaking. When Poppy finds herself facing a serious bout of ennui, unhappy with her glamorous job and the life she’s been dreaming of forever, she thinks back to the last time she was truly happy: her last vacation with Alex. And so, though they haven’t spoken in two years, she asks him to take another vacation with her. She’s determined to bridge the gap that’s formed between them and become best friends again, but to do that, she’ll have to be honest with Alex—and herself—about her true feelings. In chapters that jump around in time, Henry shows readers the progression (and dissolution) of Poppy and Alex’s friendship. Their slow-burn love story hits on beloved romance tropes (such as there unexpectedly being only one bed on the reconciliation trip Poppy plans) while still feeling entirely fresh. Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. But there’s depth to the story, too—Poppy’s feeling of dissatisfaction with a life that should be making her happy as well as her unresolved feelings toward the difficult parts of her childhood make her a sympathetic and relatable character. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own.
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0675-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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