A Sapphic novel in which opposites attract offers a new twist on an old trope.
A bi indie bookstore manager agrees to a marriage of convenience with a bi romance cover model to save their family legacies.
Tansy Adams has been fibbing about having a girlfriend to fend off her pushy stepmother's demands. Then, at a family wedding, who should walk in but Gemma West, the romance cover model whose name and photo Tansy had appropriated to represent her fake girlfriend. It turns out she's actually Gemma van Dalen, a publishing heiress and estranged cousin of the man marrying into Tansy's family. Put on the spot, Gemma surprises everyone by going along with Tansy's lie and even—gasp!—proposing to Tansy in front of everyone. Suddenly, Tansy is saying yes to Gemma’s proposal, which will let her have the millions she needs to buy her late father's Seattle bookstore from her stepmother, who wants to sell it to a chain, while letting Gemma fulfill the terms of her late grandfather’s will. Former party girl Gemma is interested only in inheriting and running her grandfather's newspaper publishing empire, but she quickly finds her heart ensnared by the softer, more diffident Tansy. Once they learn how each other's families have hurt them in the past, they're both determined to protect their newfound mutual affection while turning their fake relationship into a real one. Bellefleur peppers the novel with callouts to the romance genre plus oddball supporting characters, including rich jerks who want to foil the two women’s plans. A backstory about how the groom sexually shamed Tansy in high school introduces a more serious theme, balancing out the weaker poor-little-rich-girl narrative given to Gemma. Text messages between the two women serve as romantic banter, while in-person sex talk and on-page sex scenes show the sparks of their chemistry. In the manner of Four Weddings and a Funeral or Notting Hill, a crisis delays the happy ending, and two grand gestures and a public proposal facilitate it. En route, the tale of two women battling corporate giants also takes on straight White male privilege.
A Sapphic novel in which opposites attract offers a new twist on an old trope.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9780063258495
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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