Another stunning and poignant novel about grief recovery from Cara Bastone. Go into this one expecting 80% LitFic and 20% Romance. It’s only romance in the sense that being in love is a constant when life throws us some curveballs. The book is one woman’s journey to understanding that she is suffering from PTSD due to an accident that happened a year ago. Although Roz and Vin weren’t killed, they did have some physical recovery. But the mental and spiritual recovery is taking much longer.
Roz is finding herself again through drawing. Not an artist, she wants to be able to learn about how she sees the world and signs up for a drawing class with nude models. Her husband Vin moved into the guest room months ago, and now she is blindsided by seeing a new lease. She inherently knows he has decided to move out.
In many ways, this is the classic miscommunication trope, but in others, it is so so so much bigger. Roz and Vin are both suffering since the accident, and they can’t connect with each other. It’s another big old advertisement for therapy. Not even couples therapy, but they both need help individually.
Another thing I really enjoyed was learning about Roz’s job and how she would try to make new recipes out of leftover food. The organization takes food that is being discarded from grocery, restaurant and farmers market and she tries to figure out ways to use it. There is something so purely symbolic about that, that she was an artist who chose to make sustenance out of trash. As someone who grew up thinking it is a sin to throw away food, seeing leftovers in my refrigerator is incredibly stress inducing. Roz, likewise, was taught young that wasting food is a sin. It is just very cool that she did something productive with that.
Thank you NetGalley and Dial Delights for the ARC. Book to be published March 17, 2026.
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