Review: The Marriage Sabbatical

If you see the title of this cute novel and think “sabbatical, like a work sabbatical, but with marriage?” then you would be correct. That’s the unique and spicy little twist to this love story between a middle-aged couple that’s already been together about 20 years. The Marriage Sabbatical is a fun look at marriage, the story after the “will-they-won’t-they” of all the chick lit about young adults in their twenties and early thirties. Here, Jason and Nicole hear about the idea from their doomed swinging neighbors, who they admittedly can’t stand. It’s called the 500 Mile Rule, which states that if the two partners in a couple are more than 500 miles away from each other, they’re allowed to participate in whatever kind of sexual, frivolous escapade intrigues them. Jason is about to take a year-long work sabbatical, which he planned to spend traveling with Nicole. But shortly after hearing about the 500 Mile Rule, Nicole admits she doesn’t want to venture to any of the wildly outdoorsy places Jason planned to visit. So they argue, and then compromise on spending (about a year) apart: Jason will do his wild bro trip (a trip that he had originally planned to do with his best friend, who sadly died during COVID, and who Jason is still grieving) and Nicole will go to Santa Fe and take silversmith classes in an effort to learn to make jewelry. At the onset, I wondered whether either of the characters would actually do the dirty and sleep with other people. I doubted it. That’s just not how these books go. They have to find their way back to each other, after all! But as the book continues, the reader quickly learns Jason and Nicole’s relationship was a lot more complex than it seemed. Maybe they really needed this sabbatical. And maybe they really needed to see other people. It’s an interesting exploration of long-term love and the lengths some are willing to go to to reconnect. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. But author Lian Dolan (whose previous book, The Sweeney Sisters, I also really enjoyed) manages to make everyone come out on top at the end, especially true love.

Review: Karma Under Fire

What kind of girl doesn’t love a good “enemies to lovers” storyline? Put a multicultural twist on it, and I’m hooked. That’s exactly what author Love Hudson-Maggio delivers in this fun, quick romp of a read about an American girl on a quest to start a jewelry business who meets an hot up-and-coming Indian chef. Both of them are in the process of being set up by their parents with arranged marriages — neither of which they’re excited about or even know about for a little while. They meet when Tej Mayur actually fires Harlow Kennedy from an account she’s working on at a lame job she doesn’t like. After her firing, she figures she’ll plan the rest of her life after taking a break from life while visiting India, where her best friend is getting married. But lo and behold, she gets on the plane and finds herself sitting next to Tej. It is uncomfortable and awkward, but ultimately they can’t stop thinking of each other. When her friend’s wedding doesn’t turn out exactly as planned, it makes Harlow rethink the entire notion of love and marriage. Meanwhile, Tej has zero interest in the marriage his parents surprise him with. Tej and Harlow spend a lot of time together, putting each other through tests and games. But the whole time, they are well aware of what they really want. Are they willing to reach out and grab it though?

The cat-and-mouse game becomes a little annoying, especially when Harlow agrees to let Tej set her up on dates with other men. And why is she suddenly so open to a possible arranged marriage when her mother is trying to set one up for her at home, and she has no interest in that one? I also found myself wondering how many American girls are really subjecting themselves to arranged marriages in the States these dates? There were several plotholes that threw me, but the love story and connection between the two main characters got me in the end. It is karma after all.

Lara’s Top Picks of 2023

Better late than never, right?! Here are my favorite 10 books of all the 26 books I read last year, in descending order, complete with links to full reviews of each of them. You’ll notice a small handful of Colleen Hoover books; that’s because I did a Colleen Hoover binge last summer and discovered they are a true guilty pleasure for me. Last year happened to be a year of great reads for me, and the top 5 on this list could have really gone in any order. Each of them was incredible.

10. Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. It’s the ultimate story of “girl tries to fix boy,” but in this one, she actually does it. While people may hate that trope, I couldn’t put this book down.

9. November 9 by Colleen Hoover. Two lovers meet on November 9 every year as their love story grows. It’s a silly trope that’s been done before, and yet here, it still works.

8. Naturally Tan by Tan France. The Queer Eye host uses his memoir as a vehicle for also offering fashion advice and self-help tips he’s learned along the way. Eloquent and fashionable, just like Tan, himself.

7. Verity by Colleen Hoover. A thriller and page-turner that will make you feel a little icky, but that you won’t be able to put down. For those who like Gone Girl.

6. The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal. It will make you laugh, and it will make you cry. NPR Host Peter Sagal writes a compelling memoir about how running is not just for physical health, but for mental and emotional health and gets you through the hardest of hard times.

5. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This is a fun novel for anyone who loves novels about: love, feminism, chemistry, cooking or parenting. Yes, it manages to tackle all of that into one powerful story.

4. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. Egan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad revisits many of the characters from that original book, telling what feels less like a novel and more like a collection of short stories about characters who are all somehow connected.

3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This is a one helluva page-turner told through the eyes of a journalist reporting on an elderly actress who recalls all the men she married over the years. But the real story is who Evelyn Hugo’s true love was, and how she and this journalist are connected.

2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. A sad and yet still hopeful novel, Tomorrow tells the story of soulmates, not in love, but in video game creating.

1. Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. A statement on mid-life in New York City, Fleishman is depressing in how deeply relatable the characters are as well as their perspectives on marriage, parenthood, anxiety and meltdowns.

Series vs. Book: Lessons in Chemistry

For a while, Lessons in Chemistry was one of the biggest literary hits. Every woman I knew seemed to be reading it. So when I finally got around to it, it was just in time for the new adapted limited series version of the book to debut on Apple TV+, starring Brie Larson. I’ve found the book to be slightly controversial. The controversy being over how much people actually liked it. Half of my friends absolutely loved it, and the other had no care for it. Some couldn’t even get through it. Personally, I thought it lacked some subtlety, but I really enjoyed the book and enjoyed the streaming series equally, despite the many changes it made. Here’s a look at some of those changes.

**Warning: SPOILERS BELOW

1. The TV series added a “Ms. Hastings” pageant

In the first episode, the series includes a Ms. Hastings pageant within Elizabeth’s office. Elizabeth, the staunch feminist that she is, doesn’t want to participate, but is forced into it and ultimately walks out early, much to the dismay of the other women participating. This addition stands to further show what an outcast Elizabeth is and how feminist and beyond her time she is. But as viewers and readers, I felt we were beaten over the head with this theme so many times that the addition of a pageant wasn’t necessary.

2. Harriet’s home life and connection to Elizabeth and Calvin

The series GREATLY revamped the Harriet character. In the book, Harriet is one of Elizabeth’s neighbors who comes to help her after Elizabeth gives birth to Mad. Harriet essentially becomes a nanny-like figure in the Zott family, and later befriends Elizabeth. She never had a relationship with Calvin and spends more and more time with the Zott family in part because her husband is abusive. But in the series, she is in a loving relationship with her successful husband doctor. Harriet is a lawyer, herself, and is involved in advocacy efforts in town.

3. Six-Thirty is a goldendoodle

In the book, the dog, Six-Thirty, is a former military bomb-sniffing canine, which would typically be portrayed with a German Shepard. Designer dogs like goldendoodles didn’t even exist in the time frame in which the series is set. But I understand this change as an effort to parallel Elizabeth being ahead of her time. She would have a dog that would wind up becoming trendy 40-50 years later.

4. Calvin is less of a loner

In the book, Calvin is a loner. He’s described as kind of funny looking, and no woman at his office has any romantic interest in him. In the series, Lewis Pullman portrays a much better looking Calvin than I had in mind. He’s friends with Harriet and her husband, and several of his female coworkers have crushes on him (though, they do still think he’s a bit of an oddball).

5. Mad goes to private school

In the series, Elizabeth’s daughter, Mad, goes to private school. The choice was to showcase how smart she is and that she was well beyond the level of her public school classmates. It was also a means to explain why Elizabeth would be seeking out a higher-paying job. But in the book, Mad doesn’t go to private school, and Elizabeth needs the money simply because they’re cash-strapped after the death of Calvin.

6. The protest

Going along with Harriet’s altered role as an advocate, her focus throughout the series is on protesting a highway that’s planned to be built in her predominantly black neighborhood. Her advocacy work culminates in a protest on the highway that leads to police violence on black people and political ramifications for Elizabeth, who also attends the protest. None of this is in the book, but I imagine it was added because the showrunners/writers felt there needed to be a Civil Rights component to the story because of the time period in which it takes place. This also serves as a way to make Harriet a black mirror for Elizabeth as another strong woman who’s ahead of her time in the way she sees the world.

7. Elizabeth hires Fran Frask

In the book, Fran Frask – we later learn – is hired by Reverand Wakely as a typist/assistant. In the series, Elizabeth hires her to work as her assistant. This allows Fran to have a larger role in the story, and for Elizabeth and Fran to connect and create a stronger friendship. It also leads to…

8. Walter has a new love interest

In the series, Fran is a love interest for Walter, Elizabeth’s boss. In the novel, the love interest for Walter is Harriet, who has finally left her abusive husband. Obviously that would not have made sense for Harriet in the TV series because in this version, Harriet is happily married. But I did love the idea of an interracial romantic relationship in the novel and the fact that Harriet found the strength to leave her husband. All of that is lost in the series.

9. No encounter between Elizabeth and Phil

In the novel, Elizabeth has a second sexual assault encounter. The first is in flashback from when she was younger. The second happens when she’s hosting Supper at Six and her boss’s boss, Phil, attempts to sexually assault her. She pulls out a knife, he passes out, and ultimately never returns to the show. In the series, none of this happens. And I wished it did! Mostly because Phil is a monster. But more importantly, it touches on Elizabeth’s PTSD and shows her continued bravery and strength.

10. Elizabeth’s ending

In the book, Elizabeth ultimately takes over Hastings Research, which allows her to complete her research and continue with even more. In the book, she leaves her show and becomes a chemistry teacher. It’s a nice – yet quite literal – homage to the title of novel, but it makes it so she never returns to her true passion of being a scientist.

Review: Sula

Picking up Sula as selection for my book club, I was excited to read my first Toni Morrison book! After all, she’s pretty legendary. I’d never heard of Sula and therefore didn’t know what to expect. While it wasn’t a page-turner or a book that I found myself thinking of throughout the day, it had some important themes and interesting tropes that lent itself to comparison with other contemporary black pieces of work.

Sula follows the friendship and journey of two best girl friends from a predominantly black neighborhood in the South from 1919 to 1965. It follows how the paths of the two girls diverge as Sula leaves town for years, loses contact with Nel and later returns after many affairs with men attending college. Nel, meanwhile, has stayed in town and become a housewife. Picking things up where they left off isn’t so feasible between the women, who though having suffered similar traumas, have different outlooks on life and ways of managing that trauma.

In Sula’s life, several of her family members have died as the result of fire, and they are not the only ones to do so in this short novel. The fire and burning theme was clear but almost too obvious. It was repeated over and over and could have been more subtle.

Sula also reminded me of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and The Color Purple (the new musical movie, which is my only point of comparison). The pacing of Sula reminded me of Do the Right Thing in that the entire time, the reader/viewer is witnessing microaggressions and traumas, but not necessarily knowing where the story is going. So initially, it feels like a slice of life story. Then all of a sudden, there’s a huge, aggressive climax (a tunnel collapse in Sula and the death of a black man in Do the Right Thing) when I realized “oh, this is what this was all leading to: absolute chaos and change, which is profound and unsettling. The setting of Sula, however, reminded me a lot of The Color Purple, and Sula, the character, reminded me of Shug Avery in Purple in that they are strong women who have the courage to leave town, have affairs and return home, not caring what anyone else thinks of them.

Again, Sula was not my favorite book, but feels like important literature about black culture and understanding.

Review: City of Girls

Recap: It’s 1940, upstate New York, and Vivian has just been kicked out of Vassar College. It was the all-girls’ school way of reprimanding the student who wasn’t taking things seriously and wasn’t passing her classes. But Vivian didn’t see the point, living in a time when women were only expected to marry after college anyway. After being kicked out, her parents sent to her Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg. With no plan, no focus, and no idea what it’s like to live in the city, Vivian is thrown into a world beyond her imagination. She knew Aunt Peg ran a theater in New York City, but that’s about it. She soon found it was theater that performed low-tier original shows full of dancers, showgirls and lackluster talent. But it was a unique community offering, barely kept afloat by the regulars who attended the shows no matter how bad they were. Vivian, who loved to sew and make clothes, was in her glory. Upon learning of her talents, she was made to be the costumer for the theater, giving Vivian an “in” to befriend the women who were faster, flashier, sexier and harder partiers than she. Among that group was Celia. It’s not clear whether Vivian wants to be Celia or be with her, but nonetheless she befriends her, and soon Vivian is “inducted” into the group of boisterous women.

They encourage her to lose her virginity, to drink, to go clubbing, and Vivan loves every second of it. A progressive girl – particularly for that time – she has no shame about anything she’s doing. She simply wants to enjoy life, especially this big city life. Her Aunt Peg and Peg’s partner/friend, Olive, turn a blind eye to her outings and yet, always look out for her. That ultimately comes in handy.

Vivian is at the theater at a time when things start to blossom. Aunt Peg’s estranged husband, Billy, comes to New York from out of town and lives with them for a while. So does Peg’s friend, Edna, a superstar actress escaping the war in Europe alongside her handsome husband, Arthur. Billy, a writer, writes a new show for the theater, which Edna stars in. Suddenly smash reviews are coming in left and right and so are enormous audiences. Aunt Peg’s theater is the talk of town. And Vivian is living in the moment! But a sexually charged, alcohol-infused evening leads to a risque public moment – particularly for the 1940’s – that forces Vivian to leave the city, head hanging in shame.

And this, my friends, is just the first half of the book.

Analysis: City of Girls had been one of those books sitting at the top of my TBR List since it came out in 2019; I just hadn’t gotten around to it. I heard it was feminist (yay!), historical fiction (love!) and written by Elizabeth Gilbert, best known for her nonfiction smash, Eat Pray Love. So for several reasons, I was excited to dive in. I tore through it, though it is lengthier than my average read. It certainly entertained me, and I was riveted by the characters, but it was simultaneously both slow to start and then lost momentum at the end.

The first half of the book does a lot of scene-setting, introducing characters and offering a lot of exposition. The characters are a delight, and the dazzle of New York City, well, dazzles. But when one of my friends asked me if I’d gotten to page 250, I then had incentive to really power through the novel, and with good reason. The impact of page 250 is shocking and wild. At that point, I needed to keep reading to learn what happened next. The book is also told with a framing device of a now 95-year-old Vivian telling her story of her life to someone named Angela. The reader doesn’t find out until much later who Angela is, or how she’s connected to Vivian. So as the book continues, I became increasingly curious about who Angela was. But when I finally found out, it felt anti-climactic. And what’s most confusing is the book’s pacing. While the first half of the book centers around one year Vivian spends in New York, the second half tells the story of the rest of her life, speeding through decades and new characters. Vivian didn’t end up with any of the people I thought she would, and that’s probably the point. Ultimately, she ends up surrounded by strong women, a far cry from the “weaker” women described as her fellow classmates at Vassar earlier in the novel. And that womanly, feminist viewpoint is beautiful in its own right. I loved so many parts of this book. So much of it was fun, so much unexpected. But it also suffered from moments of meandering, and an ending that while nice, wasn’t as powerful as I wanted it to be.

MVP: Aunt Peg and Olive. This power duo becomes Vivian’s surrogate parents as her actual parents don’t legitimately seem to care much for their daughter. Peg and Olive are creatives, forward-thinkers, true New Yorkers through and through. The few scenes with them are some of the most powerful in the novel. They are the definition of strength.

Get City of Girls in paperback for $11.21.

Or on your Kindle for $14.99.

Review: The Candy House

Recap: In a dreamy, interwoven bit of organized chaos, Jennifer Egan once again delivers an exceptional story that’s not really a story, a tale with connecting throughlines, characters and themes but no real plot. It’s a tough one to explain to others. In fact, I tried to explain Egan’s storytelling to one of my coworkers recently who looked at me puzzled, and may as well have responded by saying “well, that sounds awful.” But what’s confusing, once understood, becomes brilliant and truly awe-some.

About ten years after her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan published The Candy House as a sequel, following some of the characters from Goon Squad. Those carryovers include Sasha, LuLu and Bennie among others. Egan does the same thing in this sequel as she does in her first book: each chapter reads like a short story about a particular character. A minor character from that story is then the “hero” of the next chapter, so the reader learns more about another person in the story. Then another minor character tells the story in the next chapter. That same thread continues throughout. The stories aren’t necessarily connected either. They’re just little slice of life pieces of each of these characters. Some stories are told in present day, some in the future, some in the past. There’s a lot of hopping around and putting together the puzzle pieces of who’s connected to who, how and on what section of the timeline.

In Goon Squad, Lulu was a young girl. In Candy House, we meet her as an adult, where she is a spy (and has maybe the coolest chapter in the book?). Here, Lulu is also part of another chapter made up of emails sent between many of these interconnected characters, which further emphasizes the brilliant interweaving of everyone. It’s very “Love, Actually” and fun to read! The connections between the characters is one of the central themes of Egan’s books: that each person has an impact on another. But Candy House has another overarching theme about social media, authenticity and who you are versus how you portray yourself online and preserve yourself for the future — big themes about which we are already talking when it comes to AI and which make this story particularly relevant.

Analysis: What’s fun about The Candy House that I don’t remember from Goon Squad is that Jennifer Egan is playfully meta in her writing. Near the end of the book, she calls out the book’s title by writing “tongue in cheek nostalgia is merely the portal, the candy house, if you will, through which we hope to lure in a new generation and bewitch them.” It’s exactly what she’s doing with this book: trying to lure in a new generation of readers to her eclectic writing a decade after publishing her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that younger readers may have missed altogether. She goes on to question “do all roads start to converge after age 70?” The Candy House has an answer for that too: yes, or maybe even earlier.

When I read A Visit from the Goon Squad years ago, I remember being excited to read an award winning book. I liked it, but it didn’t have much of an impact on me. It took me a while to understand what was going on, and by the time I got it, I felt like I had spent so much of the book focusing on the wrong things and missing the beauty and creativity that was right in front of me. So sadly, it didn’t land. But for some reason, The Candy House clicked much more easily and earlier for me. Reading it felt like an adventure and made me appreciate Goon Squad and Jennifer Egan much more.

MVP: Lulu. There are a dozen characters I’d love to put here, but Lulu’s chapters were the most creatively written format-wise, and her character displayed such strength and a beautiful mix of masculinity and femininity.

Get The Candy House in paperback for $15.19.

Or on your Kindle for $13.99.

Review: The Emperor’s Soul

Recap: As a person who practices magical forgery, Shai is used to being condemned by her government and society, assumed a rascal to others. But the fact is she is so good at forgery that, though judged for her actions, her talent is not overlooked. So for 100 days, we are dropped Shai’s world, where she has been imprisoned, but tasked with forging a new soul for the Emperor. The Emperor is suffering from brain damage after a failed assassination attempt, and his team is hoping Shai will be able to forge his soul enough – and so well – that he may be able to continue serving as Emperor.

Though treated poorly by some in her imprisonment, her forgery talents continue to dazzle and amaze. Ultimately, Shai builds a rapport with some of those who are watching her in her cell. But even she wonders if she’ll able to accomplish this tall task in only 100 days. She hopes to not only forge the Emperor’s soul, but to improve upon it and make him a better person. But even if she accomplishes this, will it even matter? Or will she still remained locked up or worse, beaten or killed? Shai continues to build a magical forgery of the Emperor’s soul while simultaneously planning her escape, as the calendar moves closer and closer to her 100-day deadline.

Analysis: The Emperor’s Soul is a brief novella that can be found grouped within a larger text of fantasy author Brian Sanderson’s work. It’s also part of his Cosmere universe. Apparently there are 60 books created within Sanderson’s Cosmere universe, and I have to wonder if I would have better understood this one had I read some of the others. As a person who generally doesn’t read too much fantasy, I felt a little out of my league with The Emperor’s Soul. I found it difficult to get into this book, even though it was short. The way it started felt sudden, as if I were suddenly dropped into something without any grounding, much like Shai is dropped into prison not knowing what’s truly next for her.

I stuck it out of course, and ultimately found the themes of art (What constitutes as art? When does art turn political? How can art be used as a force of change?) and imprisonment (What’s the best way to treat prisoners?) interesting. But I wish I knew more about the character of Shai, the Emperor and ultimately more about the world in which they were living to better understand their motivations and the circumstances they were operating under. I imagine that if you’re a fan of Sanderson’s work, this is a fun, interesting read. But if you’re unfamiliar with his style or fantasy in general, it may be a tough sell.

MVP: Shai is the protagonist and obviously the most interesting character with quite a dilemma to take on. She shows growth and makes the less obvious choice to keep the reader interested. And being a badass female in this world of men is something I will always support.

Get The Emperor’s Soul in paperback for $16.31.

Or on your Kindle for $4.99.

Review: It Starts With Us

Recap: It Starts With Us is the sequel to Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us and picks up immediately following the epilogue of It Ends With Us. That epilogue ends with about a year’s time jump and a brief interaction between Lily and Atlas, Lily’s first boyfriend from high school. As this second book in the series starts off, Lily is wondering if it’s even possible to make that relationship work again when she still has Ryle in her life. She and Ryle are now divorced, and their daughter is now about a year old. Co-parenting has not been easy. It never is, but when your ex is an abuser, there are added layers of challenges. She and Ryle have learned to get along while passing the baby between them but Ryle is clearly still holding out hope that they will get back together. He doesn’t quite understand the deep-seeded fear that now lies in Lily’s body. She quite literally contracts when he’s near. And he seems to be near a lot as he still has access to Lily’s apartment.

For the first time in the story of Lily and Atlas, the reader gets a clearer idea of how Atlas feels about their history and relationship. The book alternates narration between Lily and Atlas, bringing Atlas to the forefront of the story, compared to the first book in the series. As Lily deals with creating distance and space between her and Ryle to make room for Atlas, Atlas is ready to make room for Lily in his life, but it comes at a bad time. Someone has been vandalizing his new restaurant, and he quickly learns there’s a personal connection. As the two try to navigate all the complicated relationships around them, the one relationship they know they don’t have to question is the one they have with each other.

Analysis: After not loving much of It Ends With Us, I was concerned I would like It Starts With Us even less. But I was wrong. Revisiting familiar characters got me on board with the sequel much more willingly. I was happy to see Lily finally get the true happiness and joy she deserved. I was also happy to see Atlas deal with some of the abuse he faced when he was younger. It’s a point of pride – and relief – when Lily finally creates space between her and Ryle. My biggest gripe is her best friend, Allysa, who also happens to be the sister of Lily’s ex, Ryle. Though Ryle’s actions were reprehensible, it felt pretty implausible for her best friend to so quickly and willingly denounce her brother and stand by her friend. That makes her strong, sure. And her actions are right. But I do find it hard to believe that someone who loves her brother would so quickly take the other side.

It’s interesting to note that author Colleen Hoover did not originally plan to write this sequel at all, but her fans – and later, publisher – demanded it. It was nice to the rest of the story flushed out though. This is a rare occasion in which I feel the sequel actually added something of value, allowing for a real happy ending for Atlas and Lily and a more clear picture of and plan for how Lily and Ryle would continue to co-parent their daughter despite their relationship status. After having read this book, it makes It Ends With Us feel unfinished. This really completes the tale.

MVP: Atlas. He really is the best. He takes on new challenges without doubts and instead, full confidence that he can either a) handle it or b) it will all work out even if he can’t.

Get It Starts With Us in paperback for $9.65.

Or on your Kindle for $13.99.

Review: November 9

Recap: When Fallon goes out to lunch with her father on the dreaded day of November 9th, she’s full-on expecting to have a terrible time with her dad who just serves as a reminder of a the trauma that left her covered in burn scars and ruined her career as an actress. What she doesn’t expect is to have a boy named Ben try to come to her rescue, pretend to be her boyfriend and stand up to her dad, who acted every bit as the ass she anticipated he would. What follows is a magical day with this guy, Ben, who seems to see past her scars and makes her feel sexy and beautiful, something she hasn’t felt since the fire.

But there are two problems: one is that Fallon is about to leave and move across the country from California to New York City in a an effort to revive her acting career. The other problem is her mom told her never to fall in love before she’s 23, so she refuses allow that to happen for another five years. So she and Ben agree to meet with each other every year on November 9 for five years and see where they’re at, at that point. They’ll meet each year on the same date in the same place with absolutely no contact in between. They’re aware their agreement is as ridiculous as it sounds, but they know there’s something special between making it worth it.

Ben, an aspiring author, documents their November 9 over the year in the form of a book he will eventually allow Fallon to read. And the two give each other assignments or goals they want each other to achieve in the upcoming year until they meet again. But each time they meet again, it’s under different circumstances – some positive and some horrific. November 9, what was once a traumatic anniversary for Fallon, becomes a day of love, angst and twists and turns with Ben in a preposterous premise which just might have a happy ending.

Analysis: Yeah, I’ll say it again: preposterous premise. But it DOES work and only because author Colleen Hoover and both of her lead characters are evidently aware of it and make reference to it in a very meta way. She even references other books and movies that use similar concepts like One Day. The tongue-in-cheek of it all allows the reader to resolve and give in to the silliness. What results is a sexy, romantic romp with some twists on each November 9 that really make heads spin. Much like she does in Verity, Hoover proves her talent writing shocks and surprises that are completely gutting and make it impossible to put her books down.

That said, the final November 9 of the book is a little confusing timeline-wise (which does, in fact, matter when so much of the book revolves around the passage of time, recurrent dates and the calendar) and Hoover wraps it up a little too quickly, almost like she was in a rush to just finish the damn book already. But I was so heavily invested at that point, I more or less threw up my hands and said “whatever!” I was just happy to see Ben and Fallon so happy.

MVP: Fallon. She makes mistakes. Ben makes mistakes. Neither is perfect, and I could sit here and say “if she had done this, then it never would have led to this incredibly painful moment…” but ultimately they are teenagers. Young people in love do some crazy, stupid things and don’t necessarily think logically. Fallon makes mistakes that any young girl would but comes out the other side with such growth, strength and confidence. It’s a real hero’s journey for her and it’s satisfying to witness.

Get November 9 in paperback for $9.63.

Or on your Kindle for $12.99.