September 11, 2017
Schoor (A State of Jane) mixes and matches couples with charming aplomb in this sweet-natured romcom. Controlling, occasionally selfish attorney Sidney Bellows and cute-as-a-button, innocent elementary school music teacher Robyn Lane are tired of being judged by their families for their choices in boyfriends. They make an ill-advised drunken deal at a wine party: Sidney will take Robyn’s offbeat, laid-back actor boyfriend, Perry Smith, to her wealthy parents’ home in Scarsdale, N.Y., for Christmas, and Robyn will head back to Bala Cynwyd, Pa., with Sidney’s serious lawyer boyfriend, Will, for the holidays. Things get complicated when Robyn finally meets Will and realizes he is Will Brady, her teenage crush and former next-door neighbor—and even more so when Robyn admits to herself that she’s still head-over-heels for him. Despite a far-fetched plot device, the author manages to easily reel readers in from the start, especially with quintessential girl-next-door Robyn and chivalrous lawyer Will. (Sidney and Perry are a slightly harder sell.) Pieces of the puzzle are thoroughly and appealingly mixed up in this well-paced tale, and younger readers and fans of sweet romance will appreciate that the action on the page is limited to innocent kissing.