Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary. This contemporary is a page-turning winner.

Best of all, the romance is sizzling hot. Chloe Brown is a delightful nerd and I like to think she could be good friends with bookseller Nina Hill, whose life revolves around trivia nights, her bookshop job, her small group of friends, and her cat until she suddenly has to contend with an entire family she didn’t know she had. Both characters need to change their lives and stand up for themselves, and readers will find them inspiring. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman. Chloe is a fantastic heroine with a refreshing voice she’s understandably prickly given all she goes through as a black, overweight, disabled woman, but that edge doesn’t make her any less endearing to Red or the reader. It’s quickly clear that the question isn’t whether they’ll get together but whether they can overcome their past traumas to turn their fling into something that will last. Their relationship begins antagonistically, but the more time they spend together, with Red coaching Chloe through her list, the more sparks fly. Enter her new building superintendent, Redford “Red” Morgan, a tough guy with a heart of gold and a hidden artistic talent. Realizing life’s too short for her to settle for her boring routine, she creates a list of ways to change her life-starting with moving out of her family’s home and into her own apartment, and working up to traveling the world-but discovers that she needs a little push to follow through. Chloe, living but not thriving in present-day England, is on her daily walk when a car just misses crashing into her. Chronically ill Chloe Brown’s near-death experience is the catalyst for a thrilling, life-altering adventure that will keep readers riveted.

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