JOY TO THE GIRLS

Secrecy, matchmaking, and love in a winter wonderland.

Three years on from the events of 2022’s She Gets the Girl, Molly and Alex are going strong. With college graduation on the horizon, each young woman is making plans for the next chapter of life—Molly’s applied to an MFA program in London, and Alex, who has a good job lined up at “a hipster tech company,” dreams of living with Molly. The only problem? The girlfriends have yet to share these plans with one another. Such is the state of affairs as they head into a winter weekend away in dreamy Barnwich, “the Christmas capital of Pennsylvania.” Their friends May and Cora, who are hiding crushes on one another, join them on the trip, and Alex and Molly are determined to help them get together. Although the four central characters are each hiding something, the stakes feel relatively low because the conflicts are quickly resolved, and the steady love of the central pair provides a reliable keel. This novella from co-authors Lippincott and Derrick, a married couple, offers fans of Molly and Alex a low-stress, holiday-themed read, but with the two leads perseverating on their respective secrets for chapters on end, readers may wish for a meatier plot. The previous book established Molly as Korean and white, and the other main characters present white.

Sweet and easy wintry fun.