by Renée Watson
First published 2024
Lena Baker has everything mapped out at forty. Wine nights with her best friends anchor her social life. Her wedding is weeks away. She feels secure in love and friendship. Then someone makes a confession on her wedding day that destroys her sense of stability. The revelation leaves Lena grieving and lost. She struggles to teach her daughter about self-worth while her own confidence crumbles. Everything she believed about relationships and parenting comes into question. At work, she pushes to highlight forgotten Black history in Oregon. Her colleagues mean well but their good intentions often wound her. They cannot see how their words cause harm. Lena must navigate heartbreak while rebuilding her understanding of love and identity. Watson crafts a story about who gets support in society and who gets left behind.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, african-american, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, rebuilding
Setting: Oregon
Period: 21st-century
416 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: mental-illness