Kiss and Don’t Tell

Kiss and Don’t Tell is Meghan Quinn’s 2022 contemporary romance, part of her Vancouver Agitators hockey romance series that follows the players and staff of a fictional Vancouver NHL franchise. Each book in the series focuses on one player or front office figure, with the wider Agitators world providing the recurring cast and the connected setting that Quinn’s readers enjoy returning to.

This novel turns to Hudson Lockwood, one of the Agitators’ star players whose private life has been kept very private after a difficult breakup that threatened to derail his career. When his sister’s wedding requires him to bring a date and the kind of stable presence the family has been worried about him not having, Hudson asks his sister’s longtime best friend Penelope Marlow to play the role of his girlfriend for the wedding weekend. Penelope, who has been quietly in love with Hudson for years without ever admitting it to herself or anyone else, agrees to the arrangement and the rest of the novel works through what happens when fake dating runs into actual feelings.

Meghan Quinn writes contemporary romance with the kind of warmth and emotional generosity that has made her one of the steadier producers in the genre. The fake dating trope is one of the most reliable in romance, and Quinn handles it with the practiced confidence of a writer who knows when to lean on the trope and when to subvert it. Hudson and Penelope’s developing relationship is rendered with care, with the long buried friendship between them giving the romance a foundation that the wedding weekend setup pushes to the surface in ways neither expected.

The Vancouver Agitators series has the kind of connected cast that Quinn’s readers love returning to, with players, coaches, front office staff, and various family members appearing across the books in supporting roles before getting their own central romances later in the series. For readers who enjoyed the Bromance Book Club series, the Cane Brothers series, or any of Quinn’s other connected projects, the Agitators series continues her gift for warm ensemble romance with sharp dialogue and reliable emotional payoff.

For longtime Quinn fans, Kiss and Don’t Tell is one of the strongest entries in the Vancouver Agitators series. For new readers, this is a strong introduction to her work.