Title: Romantic Hero
Author: Kirsty Greenwood
Narrator: Amy James-Kelly & Jared Zeus
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 16, 2026
Print length: 368 pages
Audio length: 8 hours 24 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy via NetGalley; audiobook via Audible
Rating:
A heartbroken romance novelist is forced to address her writer’s block when the villainous cowboy character from her books shows up in the real world, desperately in need of his own Happily Ever After. . . from the bestselling author of GMA book club pick The Love of My Afterlife.
Gertie Bickerstaff writes happily-ever-afters for a living. . . . Or she did, until her own love life fell apart. Now her ex is thriving, her deadline is looming, and she can’t write a single word.
The last thing Gertie needs is more drama—like waking up to find a confused and rugged cowboy on her sofa. And not just any cowboy, but River Oakley, the villain from her unfinished novel. Somehow very real . . . and very shirtless.
River wants to go home. Gertie wants her life back. So they strike a deal: he’ll use his cunning ways to help her win back her ex, she’ll finish the novel, and, surely, he’ll return to whatever world he rode in from.
But as River Oakley proves to be so much more than just the bad guy, Gertie has to choose: the ending she thought she wanted . . . or the plot twist she never saw coming.
Another winning rom-com from the very talented Kirsty Greenwood! After loving The Love of My Afterlife (a GMA Book Club pick from 2024), I was more than ready to dive into her 2026 release, Romantic Hero.
The setup is delicious: Gertie is the bestselling author of the Bedlam Creek romance series, set in a small town in Texas (where London-based Gertie has never actually been). Gertie’s always felt so connected to her characters that it felt as if they were speaking to her… but as the deadline looms for the final book in the series (cue the long-awaited proposal scene!), they’ve gone silent. She suffers from horrendous writer’s block and can’t write a word.
Gertie’s long-term boyfriend, supposedly the love of her life, dumped her four weeks earlier (claiming that he’s been feeling “emotionally apathetic” and in need of a “break”, not a break-up), and she’s been an utter ball of misery ever since. When Gertie’s eccentric neighbor decides that what Gertie needs is help from the universe, she’s desperate enough to go along with a rooftop manifestation ceremony. To no avail, alas…
… or did it work after all? Because the next day, Gertie wakes to find a supremely gorgeous and very shirtless cowboy on her couch, who is utterly befuddled as to how he got there. The last thing he remembers is falling asleep under a tree out in the meadow of his ranch — and oh, his name is River Oakley. As in, the villain of Gertie’s series, the antagonist constantly thwarting her heroine’s quest to reclaim her family ranch and find true love. But how could he possibly be THAT River Oakley?
Still, there’s no denying that he exactly fits the description of the man Gertie has written about. Awkward! After much back and forth, they accept the unbelievable yet seemingly undeniable fact that he is the man from her books, and that he very much needs to get back to his own world. The two come up with a hypothesis: Gertie somehow summoned River during her manifestation ceremony, and he’s here to help her get her ex back, since reuniting with Henry was her secret plea to the universe.
And yet… as Gertie and River spend time together, they click in ways neither expected. Gertie is forced to admit that while the River in her books is a scoundrel, the flesh-and-blood (and very hot) version of him has hidden depths and sensitivity… and also comes to realize that Henry is not the ideal man she’d thought he was.
Romantic Hero is such a fun, entertaining read (and listen)! Gertie and River are both great characters, and their chemistry sparkles. The story is funny, with plenty of banter that’s both silly and sexy — and yet, there are emotional moments that hit as well, as Gertie is forced to come to terms with her sister’s death years earlier and to realize that she threw herself into the relationship with Henry rather than actually deal with her terrible grief.
The story moves in unexpected directions, as we learn just why and how River showed up and what this means for Gertie’s writing career. While it seems hopeless that Gertie and River — people from two totally separate worlds — could ever have a future together, the author manages to find a conclusion that both works from a story perspective and feels utterly satisfying.
Audiobook narrators Amy James-Kelly and Jared Zeus bring the characters to glorious life. His Texas drawl as River is delightful, and Amy James-Kelly handles the overall narration as well as Gertie’s voice with a lovely sense of animation.
Overall, the story itself as well as the audiobook listening experience are both highly recommended. What a great bit of happy summer reading!
Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
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