(Grand Central Publishing)

It would clearly give away too much, but imagine for a second if this book title was “Seven Steamy Days in June” and you would have a very good idea of how this is going to go. Geneviève, pronounced John-vee-EV, now Eva, and Shane Hall, collided in high school; she was the new girl, the weird girl, a freak, and he was a loner, antisocial, an outsider. Mutual confessions of otherness, revelations of their true selves, in an uncustomary vulnerable fashion combined with an “incident” at school, forged a quick, and passionate, bond between them. They shared a blissful, and yes, dangerously steamy week. Now, 15 years later, after no communication, no relationship at all, they find themselves thrust back together. Eva, the author of a wildly successful fantasy series, complete with adoring superfans, but with crippling personal issues, is stunned to see Shane, the enigmatic, reclusive, award-winning, and very fine, fiction author, at a book event she happened to attend. It turns out it’s no accident the characters in their books bear strong resemblances to the other. A healthy dose of romance plus smart dialogue adds nuance and layers to this story of long-lost love between two Black authors in a largely-white publishing world.

— Reviewed by Jenny Lyons of The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.

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