Merit is a stay-at-home mom with a husband and two kids. She loves her children, but longs for something more. Her husband Cory is somewhat boring; he means well, but doesn’t see how he’s being unintentionally thoughtless when it comes to helping with the kids and home. Merit decides to go back to her career in architecture, and lands a job working for a captivating Danish architect named Jane. Although Jane is 20 years older, they become close friends … and eventually more. But Merit doesn’t want to leave her children and can’t find the strength to break away from Cory. Are secret weekends with Jane going to be enough, or can she find the courage to demand more from her life?
Yes, this is a romance, and a smoldering one at that. Author Lauren McBrayer weaves a captivating tale of attraction, and Jane clearly sparks more for Merit, both physically and emotionally, than her husband does. And yet, something about the story didn’t sit right for me. Maybe it’s that Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 classic The Price of Salt (later republished as Carol) also revolved around a younger woman falling in love with a much older one, although in that case it was the older one who was afraid of losing her children. This one feels too much like an echo of that. And aside from echoing Highsmith’s work, I didn’t see the point of Jane being so much older and Merit’s boss; especially in these days of #MeToo, that seems a dangerous path to tread, even if Merit is shown to be the primary instigator of their relationship. Finally, although Merit proclaims her dedication to her children, she spends relatively little time with them; even given the difficulties of being a working mother, she often just seems to be going through the motions.
As an escapist romance full of exotic locations (Jane is rich) and passionate awakenings, however, this is an enjoyable read, and reminds us that some queer parents do indeed have their children in the context of different-sex relationships. Whether their coming out is usually as torrid and glamorous as Merit’s is doubtful, but maybe it’s a sign of progress that we queer parents now have our escapist romance novels, too.
Content warning: Jane and Merit drink a lot.
