In Mixed Messages by Jodi Culliney, Lana Miller and Liam Livingston collide in New York through one impulsive night that refuses to stay casual. What begins as a nameless, combustible encounter becomes a romance stretched across cities, family loyalties, old wounds, missed texts, and the dangerous question of whether two people can trust what they feel before they fully understand one another. Lana, a brilliant surgeon shaped by class insecurity and betrayal, and Liam, a charming South Dakotan tired of being underestimated, spend the novel trying to reconcile desire with fear, fantasy with reality, and love with the bruising messages they have learned to send themselves.

I was drawn in by the book’s emotional velocity. Culliney writes romance as both spark and excavation: the heat is immediate, but the real story is in what the characters are hiding from themselves. Lana is especially compelling because her guardedness never feels ornamental. Her intelligence, pride, shame, ambition, and longing all jostle inside her, making her retreat from happiness frustrating but believable. Liam could have been only a golden-boy fantasy, but the novel gives him a tender, dented center. His hurt at being dismissed as unserious gives the romance a pleasing ache beneath the flirtation.

I appreciated the book’s crowded, affectionate sense of community. The texts that open chapters give the story a fizzy, modern rhythm, while the South Dakota family network adds warmth, comedy, and just enough meddling to keep the plot buoyant. At times, the novel luxuriates in its emotions; it wants every longing glance, every misread silence, every delayed confession to have room to bloom. For me, that expansiveness worked best when it deepened Lana and Liam’s insecurities. The book has a generous heart, and its best scenes shimmer with the particular suspense of two people who are obviously meant for each other and still might ruin everything.

Readers who enjoy contemporary romance, second-chance romance, family sagas, and emotionally driven romantic fiction will find plenty to savor here. Fans of Abby Jimenez may recognize a similar blend of humor, tenderness, romantic heat, and wounded people slowly learning they are worthy of being chosen. Mixed Messages is for readers who want love stories with banter, ache, meddling relatives, grand gestures, and a happily-ever-after that feels earned by both desire and repair. It’s a lush, heart-forward romance about learning to stop mistranslating love before it has the chance to speak plainly.

Pages: 448 | ASIN: B0FG8CC36G