The Turning Point

Starred review from March 21, 2016
North’s outstanding contemporary love story eschews a traditional happily-ever-after ending, but is no less romantic for that. From the moment Scott Emerson meets Frankie Shaw, their personalities take on the instantly recognizable luster of real-life love, and readers will immediately be reminded of the great loves in their own lives. Both characters are divorced single parents— Scott has an adult daughter, Frankie has two tweens—and are staring down early middle age. They are each in London on business when their eyes meet and their hearts engage. Despite the cliché of meeting in a hotel lobby, exchanging pleasantries, and progressing to drinks and dinner, their encounter oozes nothing but sincere charm and self-effacing humor. But even while they bask in two blissful days together, they wonder whether being rooted on separate continents will doom the future of their love. Her rural England home is so far from his in British Columbia, and so many things can go wrong. Clearly North loves her characters as much as they love each other, and they’re so wistfully guileless that readers will find it impossible to put down their five-hanky story until the last page is turned.

Starred review from May 15, 2016
Frankie Shaw needs Alice, her best-selling children's book character, but all she can come up with are blank pages and excuses for her editor. She moved with her two kids to Norfolk, thinking the peace and the sea would cure writer's block. Instead, she has a charming cottage that is falling apart, no friends, and that deadline. In London for a meeting, she runs into Scott Emerson, a Canadian musician in town to record a movie soundtrack at the famous Abbey Road studio. Neither one of them believes in love at first sight, and yet. Scott goes home to British Columbia, but there's no question of leaving their connection unexplored. Scott's epileptic college-aged daughter and his connection to the local First Nations community and Frankie's tween children, accomplished older sister, and distant motherall of these layers make this meet-cute feel both improbable and real. Soon it becomes clear that Frankie faces a turning point, and she does so with such raw honesty and accidental grace that readers will forget she's fictional. If you cried at Jojo Moyes' Me before You (2012), get your hankies ready.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)