At 39, Billie makes a New Year’s resolution: this is the year she is going to have a baby.
Then, on that very same night, she meets Arthur.
Arthur is Scottish, works in the environmental/ecological field, and has made an equally firm decision about his future: because of climate change and his concerns about the world we’re leaving behind, he absolutely does not want children.
And there you have the central tension of Rabbit Rabbit. Over the course of the next year, we follow Billie through her attempts to become a mother and through a series of encounters with Arthur as their connection continues to deepen. Eventually, the question becomes increasingly difficult to ignore: What happens when the life you’ve decided you want and the person you might love seem to exist on two completely different paths?
There was so much I loved about this book.
First, the settings are INCREDIBLE. Billie and her two best friends work in the film industry in Los Angeles, but this story hops all over the globe—New York, North Carolina, Italy, Africa, and beyond. Every time the characters land somewhere new, Smith makes the setting feel completely immersive. This is the kind of book that will have you wanting to book a flight before you’ve finished the chapter.
I also adored the supporting characters. Billie’s Gran, who lives in New York City, is an absolute delight and had some of my favorite lines in the entire book. Billie’s two best friends—one married with children and the other single and child-free—also give the story two very different perspectives on what a fulfilling adult life can look like. More importantly, their friendship with Billie feels genuine, funny, and lived-in.
But the dialogue may be the strongest part of the novel, particularly the conversations between Billie and Arthur. Their relationship reminded me so much of the Before Sunrise/Before Sunset films with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy: two people talking and talking and somehow making those conversations feel intimate, romantic, and enormously consequential. This book is incredibly cinematic, and I would not be surprised at all to see an adaptation someday.
And while there are some wonderfully romantic moments, this isn’t entirely lighthearted. Both Billie and Arthur carry trauma from their pasts, giving their decisions about love, family, and the future much more weight.
My biggest hesitation was the ending. Without spoiling anything, I wasn’t completely sold on how the plot ultimately got us to its conclusion. There were also a few moments when behavior that was presumably intended to feel sweeping and romantic landed a little closer to 🚩 for me. Billie and Arthur have SO MANY obstacles between them that I occasionally wondered whether some of the intensity of their relationship comes from the very fact that it seems so impossible.
Still, even when I wasn’t entirely convinced by the plot, I was invested in these characters. Jennifer E. Smith’s writing is lovely, the dialogue is fantastic, the friendships are wonderful, and the central question—what happens when two deeply desired versions of your future can’t easily coexist?—gave me a lot to think about.
A beautifully written, globe-trotting, cinematic love story that has more on its mind than romance alone.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars
📖 Rabbit Rabbit
✍️ Jennifer E. Smith
📅 December 15, 2026
📚 Ballantine Books
Thank you to Ballantine Books and Thousand Voices for the advanced reading copy.
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