Publishers Weekly - October 30, 2017

he first met when she walked into his dealership to buy a car, and whom he loves too much to ask to stay with him in the short time he has left to live. The story jumps forward to present-day California, where Luke Benoit, a college student and patient of therapist Asha Meisel, is recovering from a suicide attempt. Lucius realizes the unthinkable has happened—he inhabited Luke’s body when Luke attempted suicide.

Lucius tries to convince Asha of his revelation, and though she and her mentor, Dino Barbieri, understandably have difficulty believing Lucius’s claims, Asha can’t deny that the Luke she knew has changed. The depressed, lax student whom Asha knew before seems to have completely evolved into a good student with a positive attitude. In Bunn’s emotional novel, readers will be particularly swept away by Lucius’s and Jessica’s love story. (Jan.)

This Could Hurt

Jillian Medoff. Harper, $26.99 (384p)

ISBN 978-0-06-266076-3

Medoff (I Couldn’t Love You More)

past and present, and Hazel spirals through long-hidden memories. Secondary characters are just as strong as the narrators:

Bonnie’s mother, who treasured her cabin in the woods; Deb’s husband, whose silence made him complicit in tragedy; and Bonnie, who relishes the hurricane’s wrath from a perch on a bridge. The resulting narrative is nuanced, poetic, and evocative; MacArthur empathetically depicts each of her characters in their wounded but hopeful glory. (Jan.)

Firefly Cove

Davis Bunn. Kensington, $21.95 (304p)

ISBN 978-1-4967-0832-8

Bunn returns to the coastal town of
Miramar Bay, Calif., the setting of 2016’s
Miramar Bay, in this novel rich with redis-
covery. In 1969 Miramar, Lucius
Quarterfield has a threatening heart condi-
tion and leads a solitary existence, but has
nevertheless embraced life through his
business acumen. Though only 28, Lucius
owns 11 car dealerships, yet one of his
greatest joys is his relationship with beau-
tiful and outspoken Jessica Waverly, whom
captivating, moving story of drastic mea-
sures, failed schemes, and the loss of inno-
cence. Agent: Julie Barer, The Book Group.
(Jan.)

★ Heart Spring Mountain

Robin MacArthur. Ecco, $25.99 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-244442-4

Three generations of women seek comfort and closure in storm-wracked Vermont in this tender debut novel by MacArthur (after the story collection Half Wild). When heroin addict and mother Bonnie goes missing during 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene, her daughter, Vale, leaves a bartending job in New Orleans to return to the small town of her birth and find her. Still living on the family’s mountain are Bonnie’s nonagenarian aunt and once-guardian, Hazel, and widowed cousin-in-law, Deb. Although Vale’s return is welcome, it churns up their own resentments about living such an isolated existence. The novel is told from each of their perspectives: Vale digs for family lore before it is lost to the passage of time and death, Deb confronts tragedies of the

“An evocative, involving novel about how mystical powers can
complicate one’s life.”
“The author’s depiction of the simplicity and beauties of
life in rural Appalachia are semipoetical highlights of the
novel.” — Kirkus Reviews
Believe
BY ANNALIESE DARR