2026 romance and more. Roxie Mitchell is happy working temp jobs to
save up for wild excursions, and reading romance novels with her book
club between times. But then an unwise wish leads her into a sideways
world…
"I'm not saying hook up," says Steph in that easy tone of voice
reserved for those calling from seventy-degree San Diego. "I'm
saying fall desperately in love and get a house and have two and a
half children."
I faux vomit into the phone again, because I'm thirty years old
going on seven, apparently.
"Fine," huffs Steph. "Matching tattoos and a pet iguana."
"Thank you." Still a no.
Magical realism? Romantic comedy? Thriller? All of these things, a
bit, with a light touch that I very much admire. Roxie is offered a
wish by a street performer, and assuming it's part of the performance
asks to be the next Anna Matthews heroine, her favourite romance
writer. But it soon turns out Anna is making a genre turn into gritty
thriller, and the hunky hero who turns up in her life is a
particularly baroque murderer.
"Everything always works out in a romance novel. The men are all
good and kind and sexy, and willing to overlook a little class C
felony in the name of love."
Soon enough Roxie finds herself up against a series of serial killers,
while trying to reach the real Anna to try to get herself let out of
the book—or at least kept alive until the book's over and Roxie can go
back to her normal life. If she really wants to. And is Grant, the
crime novel fan whose car she hijacked, just an innocent bystander… or
the love interest?
"No, Grant," I say, keeping my tone as measured as I can. "You're
supposed to look at the big picture and try to figure out what might
happen. Maybe give us a heads up before we get hacked to death."
"Oh my God," he groans. "You are operating from such a grotesque
misunderstanding of how story structure works."
If this novel (Eberle's first) fails at all for me, it's in pacing;
there's a long space once the core of the situation has been set up,
but before Roxie realises that Grant might be more to her than just a
nervous crime-plot advisor, during which most of what happens is Roxie
reacting to things. It's not bad, but for my taste it takes up more
time than it should, and distracts from the Great Detective, and his
sidekick who's a Comically Incompetent Cook.
"Lissanthemum, my dear," he says gently. "Any chance you've mixed up
the baking powder and the flour?"
"HA! Trick question. They're the same thing," she says, crossing her
arms smugly. Grant's forkful of cake makes an emergency detour to
his plate. Lissa's face falls. "Aren't they?"
But once things pick up again there's a great deal to enjoy, not to
mention a knowledgeable respect for both romance and crime story forms.
Thoroughly recommended.