Barcelona Days

April 20, 2020
A volcano grounds a pair of 29-year-old New Yorkers at the end of their 2017 Barcelona vacation in Riley’s emotionally grinding latest (after Fly Me). Whitney, a rising television producer, suggests that she and her fiancé, Will, each sow their wild oats over the two months she’ll spend working in L.A., before their planned trip to Barcelona. They agree to three sexual encounters with strangers, and in Barcelona, they disclose the details of their hookups in light-hearted banter. The next morning, an ash cloud from Iceland indefinitely postpones their return flight, and the fallout of their experiment begins to strain the relationship. At a party, they bump into Jack Pickle, the star of their alma mater’s basketball team, and Jenna Leonard, a quirky college student from Southern California. Then Will and Jenna attend a concert together, ramping up Whitney’s jealousy as she goes back to Jack’s apartment. The next morning, both accuse the other of cheating, and their argument upends the already fractured relationship. While Riley’s cool, sensuous prose evokes the “promise of being trapped in the city forever,” pages of acrimony between Will and Whitney and a lurid backstory involving Jenna throttle the tale’s momentum. There are better stories of love on the rocks. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit.

May 1, 2020
Riley (Fly Me, 2017) returns with a second novel portraying another badass woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it. Whitney and Will are the ideal romantic couple, and after seven years together they are ready to take the next step and get married. Before they announce their engagement, however, Whitney suggests a controversial and risky experiment. Why not allow each other three free passes to see other people? If they experience life apart, they may end up appreciating each other and their relationship even more. They choose Barcelona, a city that's unfamiliar to both of them, to confess their trysts to each other and then to move on, leaving those interludes of separation behind them. But then a volcano in Iceland erupts, disrupting their travel plans and their hopes of starting anew. From beginning to end, the reader walks with Whitney and Will along the precipice marking an edge they may or may not have crossed. With dry humour and involving dialogue, Riley steps boldly into territory other authors have only tentatively approached.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)