by Susan Choi
First published 2013
September heat blazes as Regina Gottlieb begins her graduate studies. Her English professor Nicholas Brodeur draws her in with his seductive charm and controversial reputation. Regina ignores every warning and plunges into his complicated world. Then she betrays him in the most intimate way possible. She falls passionately in love with the person Nicholas trusts most. Their affair shatters everyone around them. Regina and her lover fight to balance what they owe others against what they want for themselves. They struggle between consuming obsession and the need to survive intact. Years pass. Regina becomes a wife, mother, and successful novelist in Brooklyn. When she encounters Nicholas again, the true damage from her first devastating romance finally becomes clear. This is a coming of age story about erotic obsession and the price of following desire.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, academic
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Brooklyn
Period: September
400 pages · Paperback · Short Books
Content warnings: explicit-sexual-content, sexual-content