Lake Effect

Lake Effect ~ Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

Nina Larkin, a food columnist, is unhappily married to Sam, a closeted gay marketing executive, and they live in Rochester, New York, with their teenage daughters, Clara and Bridie. Across the street from the Larkins, Finn Finnegan, head of a regional grocery chain, is unhappily married to Honey, a sexually repressed and unaffectionate Weight Watchers coach. They also have two teenagers, Duke and Fern. Duke and Clara are high school seniors who are secretly dating. After surviving a heart attack while shoveling snow, Finn decides that he wants more from life than a loveless marriage.

When Nina and Finn run away to the Dominican Republic to divorce their respective spouses and marry each other, the lives of the children are thrown into chaos.

Lake Effect is told in the alternating voices of all of these characters, and we learn their backstories and their motivations as they come to terms with the repercussions of their sort of blended family. I liked this book, but it was missing something for me. Recommended, but definitely a library read for me, not a ‘I must own this’ book.