November 18, 2024
Bestseller Tyler (French Braid) returns with another appealing story of an idiosyncratic family. The day before her only daughter’s wedding, 61-year-old Gail Baines learns she’s been passed over for a promotion at the private girls’ school where she works as assistant headmistress, and that she’ll soon be replaced. That afternoon, her mild-mannered ex-husband, Max, shows up at her door with a cat he’s fostering, having been turned away by their daughter, Debbie, because her fiancé, Kenneth, is allergic to cats. Then Debbie tells Gail that Kenneth’s unreliable sister, Elizabeth, has just claimed he had a recent fling with another woman. Debbie isn’t sure if she believes Elizabeth, but Gail panics nonetheless. Still, the wedding proceeds as planned. The next day, Gail’s flashbacks to her marriage with Max lead to a surprising revelation. As in Tyler’s previous work, there’s not much of a plot, but the pleasure is in learning how her characters tick, as Gail time and again fails to find the proper tact. By the end of the story, messy human relationships are proven to be worth all the trouble they cause. This will gratify Tyler’s fans. Agent: Jesseca Salky, Salky Literary.