First published 2022
Sarah Danhauser receives shocking news when her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter Ruby announces her engagement to a boyfriend she met during the pandemic. Ruby has already chosen a wedding date just three months away and arranged to hold the ceremony at the Cape Cod beach house belonging to Sarah's mother Veronica. While Sarah worries about the rushed timeline, Veronica welcomes the chance to gather the family before selling the property. As wedding preparations unfold, each family member confronts personal crises. Ruby struggles with abandonment issues from her absent mother. Veronica faces revelations about her past as a novelist after her sister meddles in old business. Sarah's twin brother Sam arrives while grieving a recent loss and questioning his identity. Sarah's husband Eli acts strangely distant, harboring guilt from a past mistake. Sarah herself feels frustrated with Eli and exhausted from pandemic life when someone from her past reappears, offering glimpses of an alternate future. The wedding day brings all these tensions to a breaking point, forcing confrontations that will permanently alter family relationships.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, contemporary-romance, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Cape Cod
Period: Pandemic
432 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books
Content warnings: anxiety, depression