SOON BY YOU

Opposites attract at a series of Modern Orthodox Jewish weddings in New York City.

Arielle Becker is always the bridesmaid, never the bride. She doesn’t particularly want to be a bride yet, but after standing under the wedding canopy for most of her friends, 29-year-old Ari is starting to fear she’ll be the only single woman left in her New York circle of Modern Orthodox Jews. Ari is sexually confident and experienced, her personal religious boundaries permitting a certain degree of premarital experimentation. Thirty-two-year-old Judah Klein, on the other hand, an up-and-coming musician and wedding singer, has been shomer negiah since his bar mitzvah—he hasn’t touched a member of the opposite sex—and plans to experience his first of everything with his future wife, if only he could meet someone with whom he feels any hint of a spark. Years of disappointing first dates have led Judah to believe that spark might not exist for him, until repeated run-ins with a firecracker of a bridesmaid spin his carefully ordered world on its axis. Adler, in her first foray into adult romance, adeptly steers her two leads through their complementary journeys, as each learns to let in a variety of intimacy they previously thought inaccessible. The book shines in its depictions of observant Jewish life, presenting Modern Orthodoxy’s integration of tradition, faith, and contemporary existence through an informed and affectionate lens. The young people in this novel go on “tefillin dates”—overnight hookups, morning prayer included—and spend Shabbos ensconced with their friends. While sexism (particularly regarding Ari’s sexual history) and homophobia within the community are touched upon, the on-page interactions among the main cast of friends are overwhelmingly warm and accepting. Ari and Judah navigate tensions easily recognizable to any reader, Jewish or not: differing relationships to sex, balancing community expectations with personal desires, the fear of being left behind.

A sexy, thoughtful, and thoroughly Jewish romance.