“A slow-burning literary tease.” can’t look away
CAN’T LOOK AWAY
Lovering, Carola St. Martin’s Press (320 pp.) $27.99 | June 14, 2022 978-1-2502-7139-6 In a fancy Connecticut suburb, a woman is forced to come to terms with the choices she made nearly a decade earlier. Molly has a seemingly idyllic life in tony Flynn Cove, Connecticut, where she teaches yoga and resides with her reliable, catalog-handsome husband, Hunter, and adorable daughter, Stella. The only visible cracks in this picture-perfect world? A dearth of good friends, a rash of unpleasant fellow mothers, and fertility issues. Oh, and within the opening pages of the book, there are suggestive hints of the one who got away: That would be Jake Danner, a musician boyfriend from Molly’s years in New York City, a time when she was working on her MFA in creative writing and rich in close friends. When the beautiful, entertaining, and intriguing Sabrina turns up at both Molly’s Flynn Cove yoga class and her fertility clinic, she immediately ameliorates the lack-of-friendship aspect of Molly’s life, bringing a welcome relief from the stuffier elements of the community. But as Lovering introduces narrative threads beyond Molly’s, the mystery element of the story rises sharply. Weaving together several distinct timelines—Molly and Jake’s meeting and falling in love in 2013, the paradigm shifts in their evolving relationship, and Molly’s life in high-flying Flynn Cove—Lovering unspools a taut, twisty, humdinger of a plot that encompasses the vagaries of true friendship as well as those of true love. A slow-burning literary tease that plumbs the heights and depths of young love, creative ambitions, friendship, and betrayal.
THE HEART OF THE DEAL
MacMillan, Lindsay Alcove Press (352 pp.) $16.99 paper | June 7, 2022 978-1-63910-010-1
As she ages from 25 to 30, a Manhattan woman searches for love and finds herself. Rae, newly turned 25, has realized that time is of the essence. She has mapped out her future carefully and backdated the time necessary for each step—the three kids spaced two years apart before she turns 35, the wedded bliss before kids, the living together before marriage, the two years of dating, and the meeting the one—to the present moment. Cue dating apps so that she can get a move on and meet that special someone fast. With a grueling job as an investment banker, Rae is long on planning and strategies and short on time. And with a dream of becoming a poet, she yearns for connection at a spiritual level even 30
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1 april 2022
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fiction
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kirkus.com
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as she dissects every romantic relationship as if it were a business deal. Her group of friends—dubbed the Scramblettes for a half-omelet, half–scrambled egg concoction they invented by accident—includes Ellen, Mina, and Sarah, who are all on their own varied paths toward love and career success. As Rae dates, works, and watches her friends pair off, return to singlehood, and explore their own futures, she constantly interrogates herself and her heart. Is she looking for the highs and lows of deep love, being truly seen, and the risky investment that can be? Or is she seeking a secure investment, compatibility, and contentment? Author MacMillan has created a character whose voice matures and grows as she ages these five years—no mean feat. Readers will be invested in Rae’s choices and whether or not they are the right ones, for sure. But the constant introspection and heavyhanded investment banking jargon might be a turn-off for some. An analytic and emotional exploration of love, mental health issues, and what it means to give someone your heart.
THE BOARDWALK BOOKSHOP
Mallery, Susan Harlequin MIRA (352 pp.) $16.99 paper | May 31, 2022 978-0-778-38608-7
Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. Bree is a friendly but standoffish bookstore owner who keeps everyone she knows at arm’s length, from guys she meets in bars to her friends. Mikki is a settled-in-her-routines divorced mother of two, happily a mom, gift-shop owner, and co-parent with her ex-husband, Perry. And Ashley is a young, very-muchin-love bakery owner specializing in muffins who devotes herself to giving back to the community through a nonprofit that helps community members develop skills and find jobs. When the women meet drooling over a boardwalk storefront that none of them can afford on her own, a plan is hatched to divide the space in three, and a friendship—and business partnership—is born. An impromptu celebration on the beach at sunset with champagne becomes a weekly touchpoint to their lives as they learn more about each other and themselves. Their friendship blossoms as they help each other, offering support, hard truths, and loving backup. Author Mallery has created a delightful story of friendship between three women that also offers a variety of love stories as they fall in love, make mistakes, and figure out how to be the best—albeit still flawed—versions of themselves. The men are similarly flawed and human. While the story comes down clearly on the side of all-encompassing love, Mallery has struck a careful balance: There is just enough sex to be spicy, just enough swearing to be naughty, and just enough heartbreak to avoid being cloying. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.
