The Love Book
A Novel
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Fans of Sarah Dessen and Mary Kay Andrews will enjoy this grown-up Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a story of risk, reward, loss, and love” (Booklist).
A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week and a New York Post Required Reading Pick
It all starts when four unsuspecting women, on a singles’ bike trip through Normandy, discover a mysterious red book about love. But did they discover it—or did the book bring them together? Somehow the possibly magical Love Book will insinuate itself into Emily’s, Beatrice’s, Max’s, and Cathy’s lives, which so far haven’t turned out exactly the way society, their families, or they themselves have planned. Along the way, they’ll be nudged, cajoled, inspired—perhaps even “guided”—in spite of themselves to discover love, fulfillment, and the true nature of being a soul mate.
“The Love Book should come with a warning: Do not begin unless you can afford to finish it—today. I could not, and did not, put it down. A contemporary Jane Austen, Nina Solomon has written a smart and funny book about what it’s like to be a woman, no longer young but not yet old and still single, looking for love in all the wrong places, only to find life. I laughed out loud so often I was downright downcast when I reached the last page and had to give up the good company of these wonderful characters.” —Beverly Donofrio, author of Astonished: A Story of Healing and Finding Grace
“Happy endings abound in this novel about the power of love and friendship.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A compelling mix of story lines . . . Plenty of good banter and characterization.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Solomon's follow-up to her 2003 debut Single Wife revolves around four unlikely friends who first meet during a disastrous Flaubert-themed bike trip in France. There, one of them comes across the titular book about attracting a mate. While the premise of four disparate personalities meeting cute may seem trite at first, Solomon's effort eventually blossoms into a compelling mix of story lines. Back in Manhattan, Emily, a freelance writer with an impressionable 10-year-old son, catches the eye of Duncan, a charming author with a mean streak that rivals Emily's ex-husband's. Fellow New Yorker Max, a tough tomboy who guards her heart fiercely and worries about having fallen for too-good-to-be-true Garrett, works as a personal trainer. Superstitious Cathy, who found the Love Book and keeps trying to get the four together to follow its exercises, lives with her elderly father after having lost her home in a fire. She's dying to find her soul mate, unlike fiery Beatrice, who is fiercely independent at 69 and determined not to let any man tie her down, even her married paramour Freddy, who wants to marry her, or his brother Malcolm, who is clearly the guy for her. Things may end a little too neatly for the protagonists, but there's plenty of good banter and characterization before the inevitable happy conclusion.
