My Year of Casual Acquaintances (The South Bay)

My Year of Casual Acquaintances offers contemporary romance lovers a fresh take on the fresh start trope, and delivers a thoroughly entertaining, highly re-readable novel. Middle-aged editor Mar Meyers has left it all behind; her unfaithful spouse, her big home in the suburbs, even her name in order to start over from scratch in a tiny apartment overlooking the gorgeous California coastline. Her goal: to say yes to new experiences and relationships with the caveat that everything remains casual; at least until a certain lithe-limbed yogi causes Mar to question the rigidity of her no-attachments rule.

With a colorful cast of fellow gym goers, both platonically and romantically inclined, along with a semi-estranged son and family, Stevens juggles what seems like a dozen different characters with a playfulness and ease that draws you fully into their individual storylines. Mar herself is so relatable, and her experiences and perceptions are written with such well-timed bursts of character developing insight that this is easily one of the top three romance novels I’ve read this year.