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CHARCUTERIE GIRL

A novel that offers a spirited but unevenly executed take on bouncing back.

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After her marriage falls apart, a mother of two must figure out how to get her life back on track in Wright’s novel.

Before she met bank CEO Jack Davis in 2013, Emma Davis was an up-and-coming software developer who built and sold her own successful company. During their 10-year marriage, he used nearly all the money she’d earned on failed investment opportunities. After Emma learns that Jack is having an affair with a restaurant server he met during one of their family dinners, he leaves her. Now that he’s gone, she has no income, no emotional support, and no idea what to do next. She takes a low-level tech job and loses whatever standing she had in the community. “What I desperately wanted was to stop loathing myself so much,” she narrates. “Rotten mother. Horrible at relationships. Pathetic career. Fat. Alone. And just plain scared.” Then creative writing professor Evy Hanover moves into Emma’s small suburban hamlet of Belmont, New York, and the pair strike up an instant and intense friendship. Evy seems to be just what Emma needs in her life; she convinces Emma to hire a divorce attorney, to stand up to Jack, to use some dating apps, and to live healthier. However, the future isn’t quite as bright as Evy makes it seem, and once Emma learns about the secret that Evy’s keeping, she questions whether their friendship will be enough to see them through. Emma’s first-person perspective effectively gives Wright’s novel a lighthearted and conversational tone, and it’s filled with humorous dating mishaps, clever gripes about dieting, and several slapstick moments. It initially presents as a fun, quick read; however, it later delves into some darker territory, including topics such as eating disorders, mental illness, and profoundly abusive relationships—each of which are described with greater nonchalance than readers may feel they deserve. The story is also weighed down by excessive detail that does little to move the plot forward, and some characters are rendered in such exaggerated fashion that they lack nuance.

A novel that offers a spirited but unevenly executed take on bouncing back.

Pub Date: May 25, 2025

ISBN: 9798991539302

Page Count: 347

Publisher: Saint Johns Creek Publishing

Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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THE WEDDING PEOPLE

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.

Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

Pub Date: July 30, 2024

ISBN: 9781250899576

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024

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THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA

The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.

Scottoline’s latest links her great love of Italy with her long record of female-centered crime fiction.

Julia Pritzker has a presentiment that something terrible is around the corner, but she never imagines just how terrible: When her husband, Philadelphia attorney Mike Shallette, tries to protect her from a man who grabs her designer bag, he gets stabbed to death before her eyes. Julia’s grief becomes laced with guilt when she realizes that her daily horoscope had predicted a calamity she’s now convinced she could have prevented. The news from Italian attorney Massimiliano Lombardi that his late client has left her millions in cash and an estate worth nearly as much again doesn’t comfort her, but it does provide distraction—especially since she’s never heard of Emilia Rossi and has no idea why she’s been chosen as her heir. Since Julia, adopted at an early age by a couple who’ve been dead for years, wonders if Emilia might have been her biological grandmother, she travels to Chianti in hope of recovering some of Emilia’s DNA. Unfortunately, caretakers Anna Mattia Vesta and Piero Fano have burned all of Emilia’s clothing and personal items on her orders, so there’s nothing left to test. Growing convinced that the stars are directing her and that her history is rooted in Emilia’s decrepit house, Julia turns down repeated offers for the property and resolves to secure evidence confirming the relationship between Emilia and her. Now all she has to do is protect herself from the shadowy figures tracking and following her and recover from a series of vivid, hallucinatory nightmares that seem to be the cost of claiming her heritage.

The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.

Pub Date: July 15, 2025

ISBN: 9781538769997

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025

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