THE LIFE LUCY KNEW

A millennial makes a bad footwear decision, falls on the ice outside a store in Toronto, gets a concussion, and wakes up in the hospital convinced she's madly in love with a man she never married instead of the one she lives with.

In Brown’s (In This Moment, 2017, etc.) latest, Lucy Sparks has “confabulated memory disorder” caused by her injury, so she can’t remember how her engagement to her ex-fiance, Daniel, ended four years earlier; in fact, she feels like it didn’t. She even has distinct memories of their wedding, though it never happened. Which means she also can’t remember falling in love with her current boyfriend, Matt, which makes going home from the hospital to their apartment awkward. Brown makes Lucy’s struggle vivid and stark—she has a lovely life, but, thanks to her injury, she doesn’t feel like it’s hers. Matt’s romantic efforts to jolt her memory are entertaining, as are the minor dramas that result when Lucy’s parents, sibling, and best friend try to help and when Lucy’s return to her communications job is marred by an ambitious co-worker who tries to take advantage of her disability. The final twist and resulting resolution are a bit sudden, but Brown makes the ending plausible enough.

A fizzy love story with a serious streak, good for readers who like their conundrums to go down as easily as one of the cocktails the characters enjoy.