A hilarious saga of family renewal and last-chance romance that plucks the heartstrings.
An aged Jewish woman kvetches her way toward love while solving everyone else’s problems in Monheit’s bittersweet comic novel.
Goldie Mandell, a 90-year-old widow ensconced at the Riverdale Adult Community Residence in the Bronx, is sharp as a tack and busy with projects, fending off (and perhaps secretly welcoming) the affections of her neighbor, Harry, while finding a marriageable Jewish doctor for her granddaughter, Maxie Jacobson, a PhD student. She hits on a plan to accomplish this last goal by faking illnesses and making appointments with physicians whom her research indicates fit the profile, dragging Maxie along as her medical advocate to meet the prospects. Her strategy lands Maxie a man but, unfortunately, by Goldie’s lights, he’s the worst conceivable man: He’s T-Jam Bin Naumann, an adjunct art professor who moonlights as a driver for the car service Goldie takes to an appointment—and he dresses abominably (“A grown man, if that is what he is, in shorts?”, she observes. “Like he outgrew his pants and cut them off halfway. Why a hat and shorts? It’s either hot or cold. He can’t figure it out?”). Goldie gradually thaws toward the art professor, but age intrudes when one of her fake maladies turns real. Intertwined with Goldie’s present-day picaresque are her sometimes glowing, sometimes plangent reflections on the past—her childhood in Germany and exile to America in 1938, her exuberant young love with husband Mordy, and her estrangement from her daughter, Tamar, who moved to Berkeley and became a lawyer. Goldie is a spellbinding protagonist, full of dudgeon and crabby insights into all things newfangled. Monheit’s sparkling prose poetically and humorously conveys the collision of romantic dreams with crotchety reality: “He pulls himself up, then stands with one hand on his walker, and in the middle of everything, in the courtyard, he starts like he’s Nat King Cole, crooning how I’m unforgettable. What’s to forget? He doesn’t know me from Adam. Where is the staff when you need them?”
A hilarious saga of family renewal and last-chance romance that plucks the heartstrings.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781960573971
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Sibylline Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An extremely fun, fast-paced, and unusual addition to the marriage-in-trouble romance canon.
A marriage on the rocks gets a second chance—with a science-fiction twist.
Dr. Emery Martín is happily married to her husband Luca…mostly. She’s been madly in love with him since the moment they met, but in the three years they’ve been wed, she hasn’t been able to focus much on him. To the world—including Luca—Emery’s job involves developing medical-grade lasers. In reality, she works at a supersecret San Diego lab that’s engineering a compound to bring mammals back from the dead. Although Emery doesn’t want to admit it, she can tell that Luca feels pushed aside, but she believes so deeply in her work that she has a hard time leaving the lab. When Emery is late for dinner—yet again—on their anniversary, she rushes home only to see Luca get hit by a car. She has the secret compound in her car, and she knows she could get in major trouble if she uses it—but what’s she supposed to do, not save her husband’s life? The compound has only been tested on animals so far, and there’s no guarantee it will even work for humans. It does, though, and Luca comes back to life—with one small caveat. He can’t remember most things, including his marriage to Emery. After almost losing Luca, Emery is now grateful for what she has, and she’s determined to show him that she can be a better, more attentive partner. While Luca may not remember her, their magnetic chemistry is still there. This may be the do-over they needed to save their marriage—that is, if Emery can keep the life-reviving measures she took hidden from everyone around them, including nosy neighbors and her own company. Lauren—the pen name of the duo behind rom-coms like The Paradise Problem (2024)—has created a unique hook that feels genuinely refreshing. Emery and Luca’s unconventional second chance is emotionally compelling, and the slight thriller edge as Emery tries to cover up her actions keeps the pages turning.
An extremely fun, fast-paced, and unusual addition to the marriage-in-trouble romance canon.Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781668017753
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.
A happily engaged woman is pulled back to her hometown—and her first love—when tragedy strikes.
Billie Wright is living her dream, running a thriving fertility clinic in New York City and engaged to a wonderful trauma surgeon named Dean. Her happily-ever-after meant giving up her life in Wisconsin, where she left behind many friends as well as her high school sweetheart, Mick. Although they’d been deeply in love, when Billie’s ambition pulled her away from home and toward the city, Mick couldn’t handle either the distance or her busy schedule. Billie has finally moved on from that heartbreak—but then she receives a phone call from Mick, the first communication between them in years. Her best friend, Erin, died in a car accident, leaving behind an 11-year-old daughter, Phoebe. Now Billie must return home to help sort Erin’s affairs and provide some kind of comfort to Phoebe while grieving the loss of her best friend. Of course, being back home also means being in close contact with Mick. Their feelings for each other may not have ever gone away, and their proximity leads to big decisions for Billie. Can she ever reconcile her current life in Manhattan with her past in Wisconsin? And which one will be her future? Giffin knows how to do drama, and she ratchets up the stakes with every page as she continues to reveal new obstacles for Billie. The ending wraps up quite neatly, but the nostalgia-filled ride is full of twists and turns that will keep readers flipping the pages.
A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780593600320
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
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