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From the publisher:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Gossip Girl series, a deliciously irresistible novel chronicling a year in the life of four families in an upscale Brooklyn neighborhood as they seek purpose, community, and meaningful relationships—until one unforgettable night at a raucous neighborhood party knocks them to their senses.
Welcome to Cobble Hill.
In this eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood, private storms brew amongst four married couples and their children. There’s ex-groupie Mandy, so underwhelmed by motherhood and her current physical state that she fakes a debilitating disease to get the attention of her skateboarding, ex-boyband member husband Stuart. There’s the unconventional new school nurse, Peaches, on whom Stuart has an unrequited crush, and her disappointing husband Greg, who wears noise-cancelling headphones—everywhere.
A few blocks away, Roy, a well-known, newly transplanted British novelist, has lost the thread of his next novel and his marriage to capable, indefatigable Wendy. Around the corner, Tupper, the nervous, introverted industrial designer with a warehose full of prosthetic limbs struggles to pin down his elusive artist wife Elizabeth. She remains…elusive. Throw in two hormonal teenagers, a ten-year-old pyromaniac, a drug dealer pretending to be a doctor, and a lot of hidden cameras, and you’ve got a combustible mix of egos, desires, and secrets bubbling in brownstone Brooklyn.
Smart, sophisticated, yet surprisingly tender, Cobble Hill is [a] highly entertaining portrait of contemporary family life and the colorful characters who call Brooklyn home.
Von Ziegesar pens her first adult novel after a hugely successful career writing the Gossip Girl series, and she does it with aplomb. Four couples and their children are at the heart of this character-driven story set in Cobble Hill, the most expensive neighborhood in Brooklyn. A bestselling British author and his magazine editor wife; a famous artist and her uber-successful inventor husband; a former member of a boy band and his wife, a former model who has convinced everyone that she has Multiple Sclerosis; the school nurse and her music teacher husband, along with their assorted children are the characters that weave this story together. At first disparate, these quirky neighbors eventually come together for karaoke and a fiery finish.
Verdict: An easy book to get lost in, Gossip Girl fans who are all grown up should be first in line to read this, followed closely by fans of Sophie Kinsella, Maria Semple, and Gabrielle Zevin.
©Library Journal, 2020
10/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
COBBLE HILL by Cecily von Ziegesar. Atria Books (October 20, 2020). ISBN 978-1982147037. 320p.
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