From the publisher: "Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year's Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn't expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they've eloped. Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn't even know Elsie exists."

When Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles, she spends a night on the town with an old friend. The decision she makes at the end of that night changes her life, and in alternating chapters, we find out exactly how. Like many Taylor Jenkins Reid books, this one is compulsively readable, but serious themes lay beneath the surface. Imagine a happier <em>Sliding Doors</em>, with less cheating and more cinnamon rolls.

Taylor Jenkins Reid branches out with a new historical novel about a Hollywood starlet fashioned in the image of Elizabeth Taylor and Rita Hayworth.

I was a little skeptical when I first picked this up: I mean, a tell-all “documentary” about a fictional 1970s band? It took Taylor Jenkins Reid about three pages to win me over, with her fast-moving storyline and characters so convincing I had to google again to make sure the band wasn’t really real. The plot revolves around Billy Dunne, the tortured, talented lead singer for the Six, and Daisy Jones, the beautiful, soulful girl with a troubled past who catapults the Six to fame when she begins singing—and writing—their songs. Daisy and Billy’s chemistry is electric, and fans can’t get enough of it. We know from the beginning that the story is about why the band broke up, and the reasons are both expected and hold a big surprise, unfurled in an engrossing story of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.

I thought I'd read everything by Taylor Jenkins Reid ... until our team member Shannan gushed about how much she loved this very short (just 86 pages) 2019 release, and told me she thought I'd love it, too. (She advised me to opt for the audiobook narrated by some of my favorites: Julia Whelan, George Newbern, James Daniels, and Dara Rosenberg.) In this epistolary novel, two strangers strike up a correspondence about the tie that binds them together: their respective spouses, who are having an affair—with each other. In every letter, a little more is revealed, until each couple is forced to decide what they ultimately want for their future. This little book worked for me. (Props to TJR for sliding in an effortless Daisy Jones reference.)

This page-turning family saga has everything you could want in a beach read: surfers, rockstars, 80s pop culture, and a mansion going up in flames. It’s 1983, and the four adult children of rockstar Mick Riva are preparing to host Malibu’s party of the year, unaware of how this one night will irrevocably change their lives. Reid employs an interesting structure to unpack what happens, hour by hour, the day of the party, intercutting the present-day narrative with scenes from the family’s past that go back generations. With well-drawn characters and a strong sense of time and place (I hung on every reference to Tab, big hair, and belted t-shirts), it’s a perfect summer selection for fans of messy family stories and compulsively readable literary fiction. I couldn’t put it down. (Content notes include an open door sex scene, substance abuse, and death of a loved one.)

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a recent discovery of mine. I haven't read this one yet but the reviews are fantastic. From Kirkus: "As uplifting as it is brutally honest—a must-read."

It's Cast Away, but in this version Tom Hanks comes home just before the wedding. Emma Blair married her high school sweetheart Jesse in her twenties: they traveled the world together and were blissfully happy—until Jesse's helicopter disappeared over the Pacific. Three years later, she's moved back home, made a new life for herself, and even found love again with a man she plans to marry. But then she gets a call that Jesse's been found, and she's suddenly forced to choose between the husband she thought was gone forever and the man who's helped her learn to live again. Reid deftly explores how our wrenching experiences shape us ... and then we have to live with the results. Until she ties it up with a bow, so if neat and tidy resolutions make you crazy, this isn't for you. A fun bonus for booklovers is the family bookstore that features prominently in the story. Publication date June 7 2016.