First published 2010
Dorothy Shauman walks into her fortieth high school reunion carrying decades of unfinished business. The newly divorced woman hopes to finally catch the eye of Pete Decker, the class heartthrob who never noticed her in high school. She joins other former classmates converging for a weekend that promises to upend their carefully constructed adult lives. Mary Alice Mayhew arrives determined to confront a painful past that left her perpetually on the outside. Widowed veterinarian Lester Heseenpfeffer tells himself he just wants to talk shop with a fellow vet, but his real motives run deeper. Former class beauty Candy Armstrong desperately seeks genuine friendship before time runs out. As the reunion dinner approaches, forty years collapse into memory. Old desires resurface and personalities from their teenage selves emerge with startling clarity. The weekend forces each person to reckon with the roads they took and the ones they abandoned, revealing that second chances remain possible even decades later.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, contemporary-romance, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, second-chance
Period: Forty Years Later
241 pages · Hardcover · Random House