Exit Lane
An 831 Stories Romance
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"The best of When Harry Met Sally, Normal People, and Lady Bird all wrapped up in a vintage button-down and sprinkled with Midwestern charm." —Joanna Goddard, Cup of Jo
The debut novel from beloved writer Erika Veurink, this is a deeply personal and propulsive romance laced with humor, heat, and high-octane yearning. Perfect for fans of You, Again, One Day, and People We Meet on Vacation.
After a postgraduation drive from Iowa City to NYC, Teddy and Marin have both had enough of each other to last the rest of their lives. But that doesn't stop their paths from crossing over eight rocky years, punctuated by chance encounters and transatlantic visits, on a journey that eventually brings them right back to where it all started.
"You are going to stay up way past your bedtime devouring this novella." —Molly Prentiss, author of Tuesday Nights in 1980 and Old Flame
"Erika Veurink pulls off a fun, charming read with just enough scandalous young-people behavior to remind you that we are all a mess and that falling in love is a journey that's well worth the adventure and the many detours." —Aminatou Sow, coauthor of the NYT bestseller Big Friendship
"I've already read it twice." —Caro Claire Burke, author of the forthcoming Yesteryear
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Veurink debuts with a rocky take on When Harry Met Sally that begins as a straightforward modern adaptation before veering wildly in a new direction. After graduating from the same Midwestern college in 2017, strangers Marin Voss and Teddy McCarrel road trip to New York City. Though Veurink gives her protagonists new motivations—"cool girl" Marin, who's grieving her late father, vows never to return to Iowa, while romantic Teddy dreams of settling down in his childhood hometown—she also lifts dialogue directly from the original. Most notably, she has Marin parrot Harry's assertion that men and women can't be friends, an already old-fashioned theory that feels especially bizarre here given that Marin is bisexual. Despite bonding—and kissing—on the road, Teddy and Marin part ways in New York. Three years later, they run into each other at a bar and Marin ditches her girlfriend for some late-night karaoke with Teddy. The next time-skip finds Teddy in a new relationship in Manhattan while now-single Marin has relocated to Copenhagen. The pair carry out a long-distance emotional affair that culminates in phone sex. It's hard to find the infidelity endearing and almost as soon as the pair finally get together for real, an abrupt and poorly handled third act conflict tears them apart. The chaotic plotting isn't helped by one-note characters and awkward prose. This disappoints.
