SUDDENLY DATING

When Lola and Harry are each offered the use of a gorgeous lake house by different friends in the middle of a contentious divorce, they warily decide to share the space in order to pursue their dreams, but their hostile start slowly morphs into a life-altering relationship.

Lola Dunne is all about taking care of everyone around her, so when a friend offers her the use of a summer home in order to focus on herself and pursue her dream of writing a novel, she at first convinces herself it would be too self-indulgent, but after her ex-husband tries to take advantage of her one too many times, she decides to go for it. There she meets Harry Westbrook, an engineer who’s going out on his own into bridge construction and has sold his Manhattan apartment in order to finance his goal of owning his own firm—in the process losing his longtime girlfriend, Melissa. Lola's and Harry’s invitations to use the house came from opposite sides of the bitterly divorcing Millers, so rather than both being left homeless, they settle into an uncomfortable truce as roommates, but as the days pass and they each make progress on their ambitions, they soften toward each other, becoming friends, then friends-with-benefits. However, when Melissa shows up hoping for a reconciliation, Lola stuns Harry by basically abandoning the field even though he’s falling in love with her and he’s convinced she’s in love with him. Lola has spent her life giving up on her own dreams for the ones she loves, and she can’t believe an Adonis like Harry could ever choose her over the smart, beautiful Melissa. Easier to pretend it doesn’t matter than risk humiliation and disappointment. Except, won’t her heart break either way?

London takes a meet-cute hook and leverages it into an exploration of risk and fear, masks and vulnerability, and ultimately the redemptive power of friendship and love.