Love at First Set: A Novel

by Jennifer Dugan

Overview

Sometimes true love takes a little heavy lifting

"The most hilarious disaster bisexuals you’ll ever meet.” —Dahlia Adler, Buzzfeed Books

This irresistible adult debut from beloved YA author Jennifer Dugan is a queer romcom for fans of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and Written in the Stars, in which a gym employee accidentally ruins her bosses’ daughter’s wedding, then even more accidentally falls for the runaway bride...

The gym is Lizzie’s life—it’s her passion, her job, and the only place that’s ever felt like home. Unfortunately, her bosses consider her a glorified check-in girl at best, and the gym punching bag at worst.

When their son, Lizzie’s best friend, James, begs her to be his plus one at his perfect sister Cara’s wedding, things go wrong immediately, and culminate in Lizzie giving a drunken pep talk to a hot stranger in the women’s bathroom—except that stranger is actually the bride-to-be, and Lizzie has accidentally convinced her to ditch her groom.

Now, newly directionless Cara is on a quest to find herself, and Lizzie—desperate to make sure her bosses never find out her role in this fiasco—gets strong-armed by James into “entertaining” her. Cara doesn’t have to know it’s a setup; it’ll just be a quick fling before she sobers up and goes back to her real life. After all, how could someone like Cara fall for someone like Lizzie, with no career and no future?

But the more Lizzie gets to know Cara, the more she likes her, and the bigger the potential disaster if any of her rapidly multiplying secrets get out. Because now it’s not just Lizzie’s job and entire future on the line, but also the girl of her dreams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063307483
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Dugan is an awkward romantic who writes across many genres and categories. Her debut novel, Hot Dog Girl, was called a “great fizzy rom-com” by Entertainment Weekly and “one of the best reads of the year, hands down” by Paste Magazine. She is best known for Some Girls Do, her third young adult novel which took TikTok by storm. Her adult romances, Love at First Set and The Ride of Her Life, boast “the most hilarious disaster bisexuals you’ll ever meet” per Buzzfeed. Jennifer has also collaborated with artist Kit Seaton on several graphic novels, including the GLAAD Outstanding Original Graphic Novel Nominee, Coven.

Editorial Reviews

[I]t’s a delight to see [Dugan] shifting to adult rom-coms and writing the most hilarious disaster bisexuals you’ll ever meet. — Dahlia Adler, author and founder of LGBTQReads, Buzzfeed Books

“[A] burgeoning romance between Lizzie and Cara brings together two women who each need a change—both romantically and professionally—from their initial early-adulthood choices…. This adult debut from YA novelist Dugan (Melt with You) has a strong mix of humor and emotional depth; book clubs will likely find a lot to discuss.” — Library Journal

“The endearing dynamic between James, Cara, and Lizzie as they brave fear of intimacy in both friendship and love carries the story. There’s plenty to enjoy here.” — Publishers Weekly

“Earnest, wistful, romantic, and real...captures butterflies-in-your-stomach, most-important-thing-ever first love and still finds room to explore the messiness of coming out and coming of age queer.” — Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author, on Some Girls Do

“A treat of a book packed with scheming, queer romance, and amusement park food. This laugh-out-loud debut made me hungry and stole my heart.” — Rachel Lynn Solomon, New York Times bestselling author, on Hot Dog Girl

“Come for the joy of seeing the beauty queen get the girl; stay for the compassionate exploration of queer visibility in all its complexity...[Some Girls Do] is beautiful, necessary, and completely irresistible.” — Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author

From the Publisher

2023-03-11
A woman who inadvertently convinces her best friend’s sister to ditch her own wedding finds herself falling for the runaway bride.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Lizzie McCarthy's entire life revolves around the gym—it isn’t just where she grew up and learned responsibility at a young age, but a gym called The Fitness Place is also her current professional home. She’s never been able to score the promotion she thinks she deserves, though, and it seems that the Manderlays, who own the gym, are determined to keep her staffing the front desk for the foreseeable future. When their son, James, Lizzie’s best friend, begs her to be his date to his sister Cara’s wedding, Lizzie reluctantly says she’ll do it—primarily to get some face time with her employers, since she’s hoping to become the manager of their gym’s new branch. One too many cocktails later, Lizzie stumbles on a crying woman in the bathroom and gives her a drunken pep talk only to discover much too late that the stranger she’s just helped out is Cara—and that Lizzie has convinced her to ditch her wedding. Lizzie is determined to do everything she can to make sure her bosses don’t learn she had a role in this mess, but now she's getting pushed into entertaining Cara while the newly single woman is hanging around trying to figure out what to do with her life. As the weeks pass, Lizzie discovers that she has a pretty strong crush on Cara, but with a promotion on the line and secrets stacking up all around them, is there a way she can both fulfill her aspirations and get the girl? The book’s premise has so much potential, and the developing romance between Cara and Lizzie is the strongest component, but the toxic family relationships drag the book down, making the eventual resolution less effective.

A clever rom-com that loses some of its spark by the end.

Kirkus Reviews