Say My Name

October 15, 2017
A debut novel about a middle-aged woman who has an extramarital affair with a much younger man. Eve is a 48-year-old suburban garden designer who passes her time foraging for lost treasure in consignment shops. Her marriage has become a cold and tiresome shadow of what it once was, her adult son is long gone, and her husband barely speaks to her. As the book opens, Eve discovers an exotic but badly damaged musical instrument in a secondhand store. As she's leaving the establishment with her new find, she bumps into her late brother's best friend from childhood and the old friend's 28-year-old son, Micajah. Much to Eve's surprise, Micajah, a handsome musician, seems to be flirting with her. He takes her number, promising to connect her with a man who might be able to repair the unusual instrument she's just bought. When he follows up days later, Eve still can't decide whether he's interested in her or if she's imagining the attraction. When the pair meet up to "discuss the instrument," Eve's doubts are put to bed. Suddenly, she's caught in a whirlwind affair with this man, who's not only part of a different generation, but who inhabits a social stratosphere saturated with drugs, sensuality, and a mysterious darkness. As someone who seeks out art and adventure, Micajah provides much-needed excitement for Eve, but the closer she grows to him, the more frightening his intense emotions become. As she explores physical pleasures, Eve struggles to determine how she feels about her aging body and her deteriorating marriage. In fast-paced but thoughtful prose, Huston (Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, 2009) challenges traditional assumptions about relationships and shows beauty being discovered in unlikely places. A new take on the May-December romance, perfect for fans of unexpected gifts.

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December 1, 2017

In her first novel, memoirist Huston (Love Child) delves into the emotional journey of a woman struggling with her life and marriage. Eve Armanton is a garden designer who likes to explore antique shops on the weekend. Anything she finds, Eve passes on to a friend who owns a shop. One weekend, she discovers a beautiful (though damaged) stringed instrument. That instrument sets her on a course that will change her life. In seeking to identify it, she crosses paths with Micajah, 20 years her junior, who awakens in her a sexual desire she hasn't felt in years, perhaps ever. But Micajah becomes more then a fling. He forces her to examine just what she's doing with her life now that her son is an adult and her husband has basically left the marriage. VERDICT Though the book suffers a bit from uneven pacing and underdeveloped supporting characters, Huston's prose is spare and at times wonderfully poetic. Readers who are looking for a more internal, thoughtful read will want to try this debut.--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 5, 2018
Huston’s captivating debut features a woman who discovers love with a much younger man, only to realize that in doing so she uncovers her own sense of independence. Eve Federman is a garden designer in her late 40s living in New Jersey with her husband, Larry. On an excursion to New York City, she sees Robert Burnett, her older brother Bill’s best friend and college roommate before Bill committed suicide decades earlier. With Robert is his son, 28-year-old Micajah, who was just a baby when Bill died. Though Eve is intensely attracted to Micajah, an up-and-coming rock musician whose arresting beauty is almost irresistible, she is initially determined not to act on her attraction, especially since he is young enough to be her son. But he takes the lead and she relents to his seduction, desperate to feel passion that has been missing in her marriage. Through their affair, Eve discovers her uninhibited nature as she becomes both physically and emotionally attached to Micajah. Yet when disturbing events cause her to distance herself from him, she learns that she has an inner strength she never thought she possessed. Huston’s novel is well plotted and full of satisfying emotional moments, resulting in an auspicious debut.

November 1, 2017
Huston's (Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, 2009) first novel stars Eve, a fortysomething garden designer who's hesitant to occupy the spotlight of her own life. Her son, a recent college graduate, is thriving far from home, while her businessman husband's behavior becomes more odd and distancing by the day. He has even moved into his own bedroom. Lonely, Eve finds comfort in her work, her antiquing hobby, and her outspoken best friend. When Eve runs into a long-ago acquaintance and his 28-year-old son, Micajah, she's first surprised by her attraction to the young musicianand then by the realization that the feeling is more than reciprocated. Finally and fully abandoned by her husband and seduced by charming, confident Micajah at nearly the same time, Eve is tossed into a maelstrom of confusion and lust of the highest order. This is, above all, Eve's story. Fittingly, then, hers is the most fully developed characterization in this sensual tale of self-discovery and empowerment that's sure to please fans of romantic women's fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)