Solar Eclipse of the Heart

Author: Kate Robb Title: Solar Eclipse of the Heart Publisher: Dial Press Date Published: 10/06/2026

Read Dates: 09/01/2026- 09/02/2026
Rating: 

 📖 I received a gifted e-book ARC. The following is my honest review✍🏻

Solar Eclipse of the Heart is a single POV magical realism romance. Annalise is grieving the loss of her Uncle Larry and preparing for a move overseas for a two-year PhD program. She doesn’t have time for relationships of any sort, so she focuses on finding a temporary roommate who can look after the apartment once she’s gone. But when the Mackenzie she’s been emailing shows up, Annalise is surprised that she is actually a he, and he is a musician who believes in fate and wears a suspiciously familiar leather jacket. When Annalise slips it on, she’s transported to different times and places, given visions that she can’t figure out but tries to make sense of. She and Mackenzie grow closer, but they’re on a short time schedule, and sooner or later following their dreams will drive them apart, magic or not.

This was so good! I love magical realism, and Kate Robb does it so well. I loved the roommates-to-lovers storyline. I especially enjoyed the found family; even as Annalise was determined to keep her heart shut down to avoid future grief, she had a community around her willing to patiently find their way in. I loved Mackenzie’s big heart, optimism, and enjoyment of life. And I found it sweet that practical, science-minded Annalise had a weakness for Hallmark Christmas movies (and starts watching them in October! 😱). I really enjoyed the little Easter eggs hidden throughout that were nods to other Kate Robb books too!

Annalise Harris believes in facts and figures—her shield against a world that has thrown her too many curveballs. Raised by her uncle after her mother’s untimely death, she’s always relied on logic to avoid the unexpected. So when her uncle passes away, Annalise is left reeling. Grief doesn’t follow rules. There’s no rational explanation as to why life keeps dealing her such a brutal hand.

Luckily, she has an escape a PhD program abroad, where she can immerse herself in scientific reasoning and leave everything else behind. She’s almost packed and she’s found Mackenzis Smith—the perfect roommate to watch over the house while she’s gone. But unluckily, Mackenzie is not the female roommate she was expecting, but a leather-jacket-wearing, wannabe rockstar, extremely attractive man. At least they’ll only be sharing the space for a few months. Then she’ll be gone.

Except Mackenzie is more than he appears—and so is his jacket. When Annalise slips it on one afternoon, she’s struck by inexplicable visions that defy every law of logic she holds dear. One moment she’s standing in her apartment; the next, she’s somewhere completely different…and nobody can see her. Is she hallucinating? Has the stress of all the impending changes broken her brain? As Annalise scrambles to explain the impossible, she and Mackenzie grow closer, bonding over Hallmark Christmas movies and their neighbor’s inexplicably strange baked goods.

There’s no rational reason an old leather jacket should unlock visions—or for Annalise to fall for a musician with an uncertain future just as she’s preparing to move across an ocean. But for the first time since losing her uncle, she feels something she thought was gone for happiness. 

The question is, can she trust it? And can she follow her heart—even if it means letting go of sense?