Holiday In the Hamptons

August 7, 2017
The effects of emotional child abuse are at the heart of this flimsy second-chances love story, the fifth installment in Morgan’s From Manhattan with Love contemporary series (after New York, Actually). When Felicity “Fliss” Knight, a rambunctious and emotionally closed-off professional dogwalker, gets a call that her grandmother is in the hospital, she hightails it to the Hamptons to take care of her. Fliss hopes to avoid an awkward encounter with her ex-husband, Seth Carlyle (whom she left after three months of marriage and hasn’t seen in 10 years), but winds up practically living next door to him. Seth, a veterinarian, knows Fliss is closed off, but he’s determined to finally break down her barriers and get answers he feels are long over-
due. Fliss hides her emotions as a defense mechanism stemming from her father’s emotional abuse of her as a child, but she’s still undeniably attracted to the handsome, patient vet, and her feelings prove difficult to contain. Although initially understandable, readers will tire of Fliss’s stoicism; it’s not clear what Seth saw in her the first time or why he’s interested in a do-over. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House. (Sept.