Long Past Summer

Starred review from May 2, 2022
Kirwan’s excellent debut brings charm, complexity, and plenty of heat. Lawyer Mikaela Marchand is just one case away from being promoted to partner at the firm where she works. As a Black woman in the legal field, she’s had to be twice as good as her white colleagues to be considered qualified, and now that she’s steps away from her goal, the inveterate people-pleaser doesn’t need any distractions. Then she learns that her next case involves defending her ex-boyfriend, photographer Cameron Murphy, against his ex-wife and Mikaela’s childhood friend, Julie. Cameron sold a photo of Julie and Mikaela from one of the summers they spent together as teens to a fashion magazine, and Julie is suing. It should be a simple lawsuit, but old rivalries—and old feelings—soon resurface. Flashbacks to the tempestuous trio’s adolescent summers add texture, and Kirwan does an excellent job making all three characters flawed but empathetic. Even as they wade through some truly messy situations, it’s easy to root for Mikaela and Cameron’s happy ending. This mature, steamy romance will have readers swooning. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary.

June 1, 2022

DEBUT Mikaela hasn't seen Cameron since he knocked up and married her best friend, Julie. Heartbroken, she threw herself into her education, then into the long climb toward partner in a New York City law firm. Now, almost two decades later, a divorced Cameron is staring at her across a boardroom table. Mikaela's firm is representing Glamazon, a fashion magazine, in a lawsuit filed by Julie who claims she never gave consent for her image to be used on their cover. Mikaela never wanted to see Cameron again, but now he seems to be everywhere. With more to lose than ever, can Mikaela trust Cameron with her heart again? In this deftly written and engaging novel, Mikaela and Cameron are well developed but flawed protagonists whose scenes together are filled with heated arguments and hotter sex. Flashbacks to their shared past provides glimpses of what they lost and why their present is so tumultuous. Secondary characters guide (and push) the couple through to their happily ever after. VERDICT Readers of angsty, drama-filled storylines will enjoy this love triangle, second-chance romance. Librarians might be interested in the publishing backstory: Kirwan submitted this decades-spanning debut novel via HQN's open call for un-agented Black authors.--Heather Miller Cover

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June 15, 2022
A woman with clear focus and ambitious career aspirations has a tough struggle to acknowledge the man she really loves. Mikaela Marchand was a Black girl--now Black woman--with lofty goals. She'd been planning her departure from small-town Georgia all her life. She and her friend Julie Robertson, who's White, went through grade school as besties; Julie, "bubbly, wholesome, ridiculously pretty," and Mikaela with her "witheringly incisive gaze." A senior prank in which they streaked across their high school football field landed them in the slammer just long enough for Mikaela to be booked by Cameron, a tall, lanky, impossibly good-looking White boy working his way through school. A romance ensues with this budding photographer, but Mikaela leaves Cameron for college and law school in the Big Apple. She's just short of making partner in a fancy New York law firm and living with Rashad, a handsome Black pediatric resident, when her past comes back with the ferocity of a windstorm. This debut novel addresses what it's like to grow up with absent and deceased parents as well as the pressure on Black professionals to overperform while conforming to White norms. The harsh realities of Julie and Mikaela's fractured friendship, Mikaela's fraught relationship with her mother, and Mikaela's inability to see Cameron for who he is are all developed with skill and empathy. Mikaela's sister, Vanessa, pokes fun at her, providing pitch-perfect humor. Most of all, Mikaela travels a long road to stop hiding from her own emotions and needs. If the novel feels like it could have been shorter, with multiple moments that could have been stopping points, the payoff is the steamy sex, saved for the end. This fast-moving novel spotlights a smart woman's journey to find what she wants.

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