Review by Booklist Review
In their more than 10 years together, Julia and Gabe went from teenage first loves to best friends. But after Gabe's unexpected death at age 29, Julia's grief is compounded by a "dumb mistake"--the month before, she and Gabe slept together, and he died before they got to discuss what it meant for their relationship. When Julia volunteers to help Gabe's mom reclaim some of his possessions from his most recent ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth, she has an ulterior motive: She's also hoping to recover a bracelet she made for him the summer they met. After Julia travels to London and engineers a "surprise" meeting, she and Elizabeth form an uneasy friendship. But when Gabe's latest--and very personal--record-in-progress is released, both women must confront the impact of his loss. Muharrar, a TV writer and producer known for The Good Place, expertly walks the line between humorous and heartbreaking, vividly rendering the complexities of grief as Julia chases Gabe's possessions around London and Barcelona. Recommend to fans of Alison Espach's The Wedding People (2024).
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this witty debut from Parks and Recreation writer Muharrar, a woman deals with her complex feelings for an old friend after his sudden death. The story begins in San Francisco, where Julia Hendricks, 30, gives the eulogy for Gabe Wolf-Martel, 29, a musician who died from a fall in a hotel bathroom. In flashbacks, Julia and Gabe meet in Barcelona the summer after graduating from high school and briefly date before he goes off to indie rock stardom. Four years later, they run into each other in Los Angeles, where she is going to law school, and she takes comfort from his bad style ("a prayer for the rejected: Oh if you be noble and true, may you be blessed with running into the boy who dumped you after he's had a terrible haircut"). Wishing to better understand Gabe and her feelings for him after his death, she travels to London to visit his most recent ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth, a London restaurant owner. Muharrar endears with her candid portrayal of Elizabeth's and Julia's messy emotions, and with her gimlet-eyed depiction of the ever-longing and ever-spurned Julia. This brims with insights into the blurry boundaries between love and friendship. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Aug.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A woman from LA heads to London in search of her on-again, off-again lover's possessions after his untimely death. Julia and Gabe meet in a summer arts program in Barcelona right before they head to college, after his mother, Leora, a poet who's teaching in the program, introduces them, and they have a summer fling. However, the book opens with Julia at Gabe's funeral, 12 years in the future. She has a successful jewelry-design business, and he is--well, was--an indie star known as Separate Bedrooms. She also tells us that just one month before Gabe died, they slept together, long after their first fling and unbeknownst to Gabe's recent ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth, who lives in London and manages a bespoke floral studio as well as a hip restaurant. Readers will learn all of this as Julia sets off for London, prodded by Leora to rescue the older woman's cherished guitar. At first Julia tries to appear blasé with Elizabeth, but after a series of blunders, they decide to join forces and find the three things Leora wants: the guitar, a baseball cap, and a piece of sheet music. Julia tries not to let on what she wants to find for herself: a medical bracelet she once made for Gabe, who had "situs inversus," meaning his internal organs were reversed. Author Muharrar seems to want to show that Julia's feelings are reversed, but it doesn't work in the brief window the women have, just a couple of days until Julia's return to the U.S. There isn't enough time for us to understand Julia's adult self, even with flashbacks to other times her life intersected with Gabe's. Nor is there enough space for Elizabeth to come to life beyond her chic exterior. Muharrar's fluid writing promises interesting future work, but this book might have remained a short story. Poignant and well written, but with a slim premise and insufficient character development. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
