Most of you already know that I love Kennedy Ryan's books, and also love Kennedy Ryan in general. She is all-round fantastic, as a writer and a person. This is known!!!
BUT. I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn't take some time to lose my crap specifically about her next release. Queen Move honestly blew... my... mind.
As in, my mother is now sick of me interrupting her mid-conversation to say things like, "But seriously, how does Kennedy do the thing with the symbols and the physical manifestations of each emotion and then time it perfectly to the beats of -"
Mum: Child, if you don't shut up and answer my question about the dishwasher.
I JUST CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK. I was lucky enough to get an early copy, which I started on Friday night and finished on Saturday morning. I then spent the rest of the weekend trying to gather my thoughts, but they are still SCATTERED. I am INCOHERENT. This review is going to be a chaotic, rambling flood of hero-worship because I just CANNOT. So! Here we go!!!
I would describe Queen Move as a contemporary romance with high heat, even higher emotional stakes, and thoroughly modern sensibilities. In this day and age, there is nothing I love better than to see explicit, freedom-fighting politics on the page, and Kennedy always delivers. She writes these huge characters - a political powerhouse heroine, a hero who is a pillar of his community - in such fine, minute detail. She layers the major issues of our world with the achingly personal issues of each individual's life. The result is a story that feels so cozy and personal yet so glamorous and impactful all at once.
But I'm off on a tangent again.
Queen Move is a childhood friends to lovers, second chance, single dad romance. Kimba and Ezra were born on the same day and have been inseparable since their mothers met when they were babies. In their early teens, their soul mate bond becomes adorably romantic - but disaster quickly strikes and they are separated by forces beyond their control.
The next time they meet, years later, Ezra is with the mother of his child.
But the next time they meet... well. Things are different and the same all at once.
This romance was an epic love story. I was so heavily invested and so anxious for Ezra and Kimba, and for all the other characters involved. I cared deeply about every friend and family member, not only because their stories were wound into the main couple's HEA, but because they were all so real and therefore loveable.
I will say that if this story was written by an author I didn't 'know' (and also know), I would've been nervous AF. But because I can trust Kennedy to keep my soft little romance reader heart safe, I was able to handle all the high stakes, twist-and-turn-y, emotional bomb moments of this story. I want to reassure you guys, if you haven't read Kennedy Ryan, that you can do the same! Which makes this the perfect cathartic comfort read that will take you on a rollercoaster but leave you feeling all glow-y and triumphant by the end.
As always, I wasn't just bowled away by the incredible characters and emotional plot, but by the writing itself. Kennedy is a poet. She can do the word stuff like no other. I highlight her books so much because every other sentence is just pure ART. She works such wonders with literary symbolism, twining specific words into her overall theme until they make one beautiful tapestry.
This story was about faith - faith in the world, faith in your loved ones, faith in yourself. It was about belonging, and about being different, and about carving a space for yourself and what you need. It was about making empowering choices even when they don't fit the mould. And all of those wider concepts were reflected in every word, every phrase, every sentence.
In particular, Kennedy has this incredible talent for highlighting the inherent emotional beauty of religious language and using it to elevate her romances. She finds the similarities between spirituality and the feeling of a soulmate bond, and illustrates it perfectly and respectfully. That's one of my favourite things about her style and it is wonderfully present in Queen Move.
Finally, I want to say how much I enjoyed reading a 37-year-old heroine who unashamedly puts her career first and takes things at her own pace, even when pressured, one way or another, toward motherhood. (There was another woman in the story who also grappled with her career and motherhood, and I thought that was beautifully done as well. In fact, there were countless examples of women in this story who are balancing all the expectations of womanhood in their own way, and every last one of them was respected and loved, and I just adored that.)
I'm now going to list content notes for the story, for those who prefer to go in with some awareness. I want to emphasise that the medical things on this list are handled carefully and with a light hand, but they are still there, and I know they can hit some people hard so I’m gonna list them in fine detail: perimenopause, related discussion of weight change, infertility, IVF, infidelity, pregnancy, loss of pregnancy.
You can get Queen Move on May 26th, and you definitely should.