Four fraught couples in Brooklyn's charmed Cobble Hill. There's Mandie, uninterested in her kids, and once-upon-a-time boyband hubby Stuart, uninterested in Mandie; school nurse Peaches and earphone-wearing husband Greg; British novelist Roy and energized wife Wendy; and shy industrial designer Tupper, still courting out-of-reach wife Elizabeth. From celebrated Gossip Girl von Ziegesar; with a 60,000-copy first printing.

Von Ziegesar pens her first adult novel after a hugely successful career writing the "Gossip Girl" series, and she does it with aplomb. Four couples and their children are at the heart of this character-driven story set in Cobble Hill, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn. There's Roy, a best-selling British author, and his magazine editor wife, Wendy; Elizabeth, a famous artist, and her ubersuccessful inventor husband Tupper; Stuart, a former member of a successful boy band, and his wife Mandy, a former model who has gained a bit of weight and taken to her bed; and the school nurse Peaches and her music teacher husband Greg. These people all have secrets, from getting demoted at work to stealing a neighbor's meal kits to faking a serious illness. Over the course of a year, these quirky neighbors get to know one another and ultimately come together for karaoke and a fiery finish. VERDICT This is a book to get lost in. "Gossip Girl" fans who are all grown up will be first in line to read this, followed closely by admirers of Sophie Kinsella and Gabrielle Zevin. [See Prepub Alert, 4/15/20.]—Stacy Alesi, Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Lib., Lynn Univ., Boca Raton, FL

This amusing romp from von Ziegesar (the Gossip Girl series) centers on an ensemble cast of self-aware, alienated couples in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cobble Hill. Roy Clarke, famed British novelist of the cult hit Rainbow series, functions as the book's center, arriving in Cobble Hill at the insistence of his critical wife, Wendy, who had hoped moving from London to New York City to take the features editor job at a fashion magazine would give her life a new direction. Roy, along with Wendy and their awkward adolescent daughter, Shy, hoped to "slip into Brooklyn and discover it quietly, be discovered by it quietly," and in Roy's efforts to overcome his six-year writing drought, he finds inspiration in his new neighborhood's oddball residents: lonely Tupper Paulsen, a commercially successful but superficial artist; Tupper's eccentric, seldom-seen performance artist wife, Elizabeth; sexy, dimpled Peaches, an English-major dropout and public school nurse with unrealized drummer dreams; Peaches's awkward teenage son, Liam, who is self-diagnosed with Asperger's and in love with Shy; and Stuart Little, a former rock star determined to be a good dad and a good husband to his wife, Mandy. The roiling tensions within and between families break into the open during the Bonfire Night party Roy throws for the neighborhood. Von Ziegesar's quirky novel of lovable misfits will appeal to fans of Tom Perrotta. (Oct.)