Love in Mid Air

Starred review from January 4, 2010
Wright hits it out of the park in her debut, an engaging account of a woman contemplating divorce. Despite finally getting her husband, Phil, to attend counseling sessions with her, Elyse Bearden realizes her marriage is dead in the water. Though Phil’s a doting father and a decent man, he’s also the occasional jerk who snickers at his wife in lingerie and is generally indifferent to her. Elyse already knows she’s going to leave her husband when she meets Gerry Kincaid and soon begins an affair that allows her to escape from the crushing banality of her suburban life. Serving as Elyse’s foil is her beautiful best friend, Kelly, now married to an older, wealthy man. While the idea of housewives complaining about their husbands over lunch may strike some as a conventional hen-lit trope, Wright conveys friendships and the blasé everyday with authenticity and telling detail, while passages depicting Elyse’s inner life are rife with the same wit and insight that infuse the dialogue. Though this story is one that readers may have seen many times before, Wright delivers fresh perspective and sympathetic characters few writers can match.

February 15, 2010
Elyse is a bored Southern suburban housewife. She doesn't have the time or the energy to devote to her passion for art pottery, her circle of friends from church act more like enemies most of the time, and her husband just doesn't understand her anymoreif he ever did. A brief encounter with a handsome man on a plane sends Elyse into a spiral of deceit and confusion as she embarks on an affair. As Elyse searches for more from her life, she realizes that it's time to break away from her comfortable but all-wrong life and seek a more fulfilling existence. VERDICT Debut novelist Wright's characters are realistic but not particularly appealing (it's unclear why Elyse puts up with friends who aren't very nice to her most of the time). Steamy scenes describing Elyse's sex life with both her husband and her lover are unexpected, and at times, the references to church cause the story to lean toward Christian fiction. Recommended for sophisticated readers and larger women's fiction collections.Rebecca Vnuk, Forest Park, IL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2010
Contentedly married Elyse is returning to her pleasant home in North Carolina on a flight from Phoenix when she meets Boston businessman Gerry. They start to talk, exchange numbers, and suddenly Elyse finds herself undergoing a sea change. In no time, shes engaged in a dangerous affair with Gerry, jetting off to various cities, receiving mysterious packages, and taking secretive phone calls, risking her marriage, her idyllic life as a housewife in suburbia, and the position she holds at her local church. Elyses longtime friend Kelly is perplexed and concerned as Elyse spirals deeper into the affair with the stranger. As Elyse questions what she wants out of life, she must weigh the risk of what will happen if, or when, her husband finds out about Gerry. An intense, thoughtful novel about love and friendship, or the lack thereof, in a marriage.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)