Love or Something Like It

November 3, 2008
In Shaw's bright and promising first novel, love lures Lacey Brennan from New York to Hollywood, where she and Toby, a TV writer, shack up in a Laurel Canyon cottage. When he proposes, 30-year-old Lacey sees the happily-ever-after she's sought since her parents' divorce, but she's vexed at every turn: the absence of her brother casts a pall over the wedding; the honeymoon is marred by arguments and stomach ailments. Professional life is no rosier: after her editor spikes her tax-evasion exposé, Lacey quits her newspaper job and takes an assistant gig at a lame sitcom. Toby loses his job and wonders aloud, “Maybe I was too young to get married.” First comes marriage counseling, then divorce, after which Lacey coasts into an affair with her egomaniac boss, takes a stab at screenplay writing and tries to unite her family. Only after deciding to move back to Manhattan and adopting a “spring break” attitude toward L.A. does she feel something like satisfaction. Shaw's first novel unfolds easily, with well-crafted prose and vivid detail, and even if some of the interpersonal drama can feel TV-thin, this is a great young-in-L.A. novel.

January 15, 2009
In former TV writer Shaw 's debut, a series of connected stories with Los Angeles as a supporting character, a transplanted New Yorker finds herself adrift in La-La Land after her marriage goes south.

When reporter Lacey Brennan, "on the cusp of her thirties, " meets Toby in a Manhattan comedy club, she feels like her grown-up life has begun at last. He 's sweet and funny, and after a whirlwind bicoastal courtship she joins him in California, where he is a staff writer for a late-night TV show. Insecure Lacey overlooks many signals that they might not be well suited for each other, and after the wedding things unravel quickly. Toby loses his job and spends his days in front of the television in a pot-fueled haze while she supports them working as an assistant on a TV show. Eager to salvage their relationship and avoid a divorce like the one that tore apart her own family, Lacey turns to couples therapy, but Toby leaves her anyway. Depressed and lonely in a city that doesn 't feel like home, she throws herself into an ill-advised affair and numerous casual hook-ups. Her soul-searching (and some therapy) leads her back to a traumatic childhood in which her mother was forced to choose her new husband over Lacey and her twin brother Sam. Realizing that lingering unresolved issues are holding her back, Lacey stages an intervention with her parents and Sam, a plan complicated by the fact that Sam has been missing for years. Meanwhile, Lacey 's improved confidence attracts a new suitor who, wouldn 't you know it, appears right after she decides to move back to New York for good.

Rises above the downbeat first half to offer a believable, honest and observant portrait of a woman who gets what she wants only after giving up what she thought she needed.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2009
Lacey, a newspaper reporter in her late twenties, meets stand-up comic/TV writer Toby and moves from New York to Los Angeles to be with him. Things go downhill quickly after the two get married and Toby loses his job. Toby, who can't find work, becomes a perpetual couch potato and starts to question their marriage. Soon, Lacey is divorced and left to wonder what she is doing in L.A. She decides to stay and, in the process, has some success as a screenwriter and dates anyone and everyone in an attempt to forget Toby. She also examines how her relationships with her parents and brother may have contributed to the hasty demise of her marriage. It's not until Lacey decides to move back to New York that she meets someone in Los Angeles who gives her a chance at a more mature love than she had with Toby. This debut novel reads at times like connected short stories. The strong main character and vivid depictions of Hollywood life combine to create a worthwhile reading experience. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/08.]Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2009
Shaws piercingly insightful first novel depicts a woman in her thirties redefining her life. Lacey Brennan and her twin, Sam, were raised by their father, an opportunist whose next big deal is always about to close, after their mother leaves him to marry her high-school sweetheart. Laceys escape is boarding school, while Sam runs away and cuts himself off from the family, save for sporadic contact with his sister. In her late twenties, Lacey meets Toby, a handsome stand-up comedian, and follows him from New York to Los Angeles. Tobys new job as a TV writer proves to be a false start when his show is canceled, and he isnt able or motivated to find another job. Toby and Lacey marry, but her new job as a writers assistant and his continued unemployment drive a wedge between the two. Unanchored, Lacey is forced to examine the career path shes venturing down to determine if a life in L.A. is what she really wants. Shaws graceful prose and razor-sharp observationsat one point, Lacey observes her brother is like a house burning down before our eyesmake this absorbing debut a true standout.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)