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 

The Messy Lives of Book People

A feel-good story about a cleaning lady--with writerly aspirations--secretly tasked with completing a novel by one of her literary heroes.

British author Phaedra Patrick (The Secrets of Love Story Bridge) consistently treats readers to stories with heartfelt plots and memorable, quirky characters. In her fifth novel, The Messy Lives of Book People, Patrick sticks with that winning formula, telling the story of an ordinary woman who is stretched beyond her comfort zone and is challenged to build a better, more fulfilling life.

Liv Green, middle-aged wife and mother of two adult sons, is a British cleaning lady whose postponed dreams of writing are suddenly reinvigorated when she lands a gig working for one of her literary heroes, bestselling author--and notorious recluse--Essie Starling. When Liv is caught secretly reading a work in progress--the 20th entry in Starling's popular Georgia Rory series--the standoffish, enigmatic author puts Liv on the spot, asking for her honest, writerly opinion. Nervous, Liv gives a tactful yet unabashed opinion. Later, she second-guesses being so forthright. Essie's lawyer contacts Liv soon after this: Essie has died after a surgical procedure. She left specific instructions that she wanted Liv to finish the novel in progress with the stipulation that Essie's death and Liv's ghostwriting be kept secret. This sets Liv on a confidential quest to conjure what Essie might have had in mind for her latest novel, the projected last in the series. However, it's Essie's real-life story that Liv ultimately unravels, one filled with unpredictable twists and turns that are as adventurous as the Georgia Rory novels themselves.

Patrick adds more entertaining, feel-good fiction to her growing body of work.

The Messy Lives of Book People: A Novel by Phaedra Patrick

Park Row (Original Edition), $16.99 paperback, 9780778312000, 352 pages

Publication Date: May 31, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 17, 2022), link HERE

 

Little Big Love

A lovable, determined, 11-year-old boy seeks to unravel a decade-long mystery in his family and finally find his birth father.

One night in June 2005 changes the lives of a family in Little Big Love by British author Katy Regan. Set in Grimsby, a small fishing village in England, the story is told from three distinct perspectives of the Hutchinson family. Zac is a precocious, inquisitive 11-year-old, who has blue eyes just like his father's. He is obsessed with food, the memory of his deceased Uncle Jamie, a chef who died a tragic death, and finding his father, Liam, who left before Zac was born.

Zac's mother, Juliet, is a single mom who has a tendency to overeat and to shoplift food from grocery stores. She still carries a torch for her old flame, Liam Jones. Her inability to get over his departure makes dating a challenge--often quite comical. Finally, there is Mick, her dad, ensnarled in the devastating situation that tore his family apart--a situation that has kept his daughter and his wife in a state of inertia for 10 years, and has burdened him with secrets.

The inability of the three narrators to move beyond the impact and implications of the night that changed everything--a night that, in its aftermath, has perpetuated lies and mystery--forms the impetus for this moving, bittersweet story that seeks to unravel the truth of what really happened and why.

Little Big Love is Katy Regan's U.S. debut; as in her U.K. releases (How We Met, The One Before the One), she delivers an affirming, buoyant novel populated by authentic, empathetic characters, young and old, who infuse her adventurous story with great poignancy, humor and heart. 

Little Big Love by Katy Regan

Berkley, $26.00 Hardcover,  9780451490346, 368 pages

Publication Date: June 12, 2018

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 15, 2018), link HERE