Pickleballers

A flirtatious romcom about a jilted divorcée, a craft artist, who takes up the sport of Pickleball enroute to carving out a brand-new life. 

A craft artist recovering from an abruptly severed marriage takes consolation via the sport of Pickleball in the competitively spirited romcom, Pickleballers, an amusing first novel by Ilana Long.

 

Meg Bloomberg--a 30something Seattle, Wash. native--is struggling after her dentist husband of two years walked out on her. Unmoored, Meg is emotionally cast adrift. But when her bestie from college encourages Meg to take up pickleball as a “mental distraction from her loneliness,” Meg soon finds meaning and purpose for her life again.

 

Meg crosses paths with a diversity of players—each with personal problems of his/her own. But as she sets out to competitively master the game, Meg learns her local pickleball courts are facing closure—environmentalists are intent to restore the area to a nature preserve. This sends Meg to practice with her partner on nearby Bainbridge Island. Via the 35-minute ferry crossing from Seattle, Meg is drawn to a charming stranger with “dreamy eyes” whom, she learns, also plays pickleball. As the two strike up a romance, Meg discovers that her new beau is the very conservationist intent on closing her local Seattle courts. This sets up a host of complications for Meg--both on and off the court.

 

Pickleball history and lore--as well as nuances about the game--flesh out this amusing, flirty romcom. Long serves up witty volleys of banter and clever plot twists that play out with winning aplomb.

 

Pickleballers by Ilana Long

Berkley, $19.00 paperback, 9780593642238, 368 pages

Publication Date: November 12, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (November 15, 2024), link HERE 

Wish I Were Here

An adventurous, open-hearted romcom about an exacting mathematician and a quirky, fun-loving doorman who set out on a journey of self-discovery.

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner is an adventurous and open-hearted romantic comedy about a precise and exacting mathematician whose world is turned upside-down in a case of missing identity. 

Catherine Lipton of Pittsburgh, Penn. is thrilled when she’s offered a university math professorship. However, when the college requests original documents for her employment file, the single, 29-year-old learns she doesn’t exist. Her birth certificate and Social Security information aren’t even found in any databases. This forces Catherine to find a way to substantiate her existence.

Catherine seeks the help of her career-averse, bohemian father, who has lived intent on pursuing his dreams of clown performing—juggling, his specialty. As a single dad who raised Catherine--Catherine’s mother walked out on them--he refuses to help Catherine’s search for her mother who might retain the original documents needed for Catherine’s dream job. Desperate, Catherine accepts help offered by Luca Morelli, the handsome, heavily tattooed, artsy doorman who oversees her apartment building, which is filled with fun-loving octogenarians. The somewhat sinister connections offered by Luca and those in his orbit steep Catherine in unexpected complications, while offering readers amusingly plotted twists and turns. 

 

Female protagonists whose lives comedically derail, forcing them to change, are hallmarks of Wiesner’s (The Second Chance Year) cleverly inventive romcoms. In Wish I Were Here, she builds on this foundation with great charm and wit.

 

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner

Forever, $17.99 paperback, 9781538741948, 368 pages

Publication Date: October 15, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (October 18, 2024), link HERE