Spring fling A novel

This underwhelming small-town rom-com from Noblin (Just Fine with Caroline) alternates between past and present to deliver a disjointed friends-to-lovers arc. Mylie Mason owns the thriving tackle shop Hook, Line & Sinker in Clay Creek, Ark., where she lives with her feisty Granny and younger sister, Cassie. She's perfectly content with her small-town life, unlike her childhood best friend, Ben Lawrence, who left Clay Creek for Chicago 10 years before. Now Ben unexpectedly returns to town to sell his grandfather's house, hoping to use the money to move to Boston, where he has a job offer as an economics professor. Mylie and Ben harbored secret feelings for each other as teenagers and don't know how to act around each other as adults. Funny, endearing flashbacks make their early connection clear, but it's difficult to see their chemistry in the present day. Frequent fights and miscommunications frustrate, and when their struggle to keep each other at arm's length inevitably fails, their reunion feels rushed. Readers will struggle to root for this couple. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Lane Literary. (Mar.)

Mylie and Ben have been best friends since they met at recess in elementary school. Each was raised by single parents, or in Mylie's case, mostly by her "Granny," as everyone in the small town of Clay Creek, Arkansas called her. After high school graduation, they went their separate ways, with Ben going to Chicago for college and Mylie staying in Clay Creek, where she built her fishing shop from the ground up. But she and Ben left a piece of their lives unfinished, and when he comes back to sell his grandfather's house, which is right across the street from Mylie's, feelings are quickly stirred up. As summer begins, their newfound adult relationship slowly buds and builds. While the timeline can feel somewhat disjointed in the story, enjoyable new memories are made, including an unforgettable bingo tournament, complete with swinging pearls, close calls with walkers, and a neighborhood cell-phone-stealing raccoon debacle. VERDICT Noblin (Christmas at Corgi Cove) offers a slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance, perfect for fans of small-town charmers and authors such as Sarah Adams.--Erin Holt