I stumbled across this lovely novel when meandering through the local library, which I can often be found doing. I was initially intrigued by the cover and the weighty title, so it wound up going home with me. The novel follows Georgie Bricker, a French professor at a small women’s college in Virginia. A victim of childhood trauma, Georgie’s intense agoraphobia hasn’t allowed her to leave her little cocoon of safety on campus in years. I should note here that this is actually a follow-up novel. The first book, Georgie Girl, takes place when Georgie is young and sets up a lot of what comes later. I picked this book up not knowing there was a first. Thankfully, Wafler does enough looking back to fill in the gaps of what readers may have missed by not reading the first.

When her beloved college falls into financial turmoil that threatens its very existence, Georgie finds herself both thrown into the forefront of the fight to save the university and facing a long lost love from her girlhood years. These events might just offer Georgie the push she needs to finally face and overcome the things she’s been suppressing for years.

Not to be a downer, but I want to start with the things I didn’t like about this book, because I don’t like ending on a bad note. Plus, there aren’t too many things I didn’t like. As far as character is concerned, however, I felt something was lacking in a bit of authenticity. Georgie, I’m told, is a 45-year-old woman. Unfortunately, I thought she read as older than that, and I think it would have made sense for the story for her to have been in her mid-to-late 50’s, which would have probably changed some plot points for the book but not to a degree that would alter the meat of the story. Maybe I’m inserting my own biases about my own generation, but you wouldn’t catch me or any of my friends going all motherly toward the area college girls. And maybe it’s also regional. Maybe women my age are much more matronly in Virginia.

The girls at the college, conversely, read a little young to me. Maybe I’m cynical, but I don’t know any college girls that would go to their professor’s house for a sleepover. Then again, this novel is definitely classified as Uplit, and that’s not necessarily supposed to be realistic. It’s supposed to make you feel good, so it’s better just to let go of that sense of logic and just enjoy the ride, even if it feels a little too saccharine at times. It’s like turning to the Hallmark channel for an escape into a good love story. You aren’t expecting the realities of love. You’re expecting to forget love can totally suck for an hour or two.

For what the author does well, she wields her words quite wonderfully. I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book as it has a real lyrical quality that flows easily. Had it been poorly written, it would have been really difficult to overlook the issues of authenticity. I did notice quite a few editing errors in the text, but that’s really down to things that should have been caught during the publication process. The worst was when a girl reacted “creamily” when thinking about her boyfriend. Oh my… pretty sure that was supposed to say dreamily, as this is an otherwise very chaste and family-friendly story. My Heavens…

Aside from the nit-pickery with the editing, this really is a lovely story about second chances at love and life. It’s also about the power of community, which I think is something lacking in modern society. The world can feel so isolating these days, and it’s nice to get lost in a feel-good story that restores your sense of faith in humanity.

On a totally different note, my daughter’s name is Willa, which I think I’ve mentioned before on my blog. Aptly, she is quite the strong-willed ferocious young lady, and my motto for her has always been, “where there’s a Willa, there’s a way.” So I got a big kick out of the fact that the young ladies of Willa Cather College in this book chose that as their motto when advocating for their school. It is quite the catchy phrase.

Overall, I give this one 4 stars. It would be a great summer beach read or just something cozy to enjoy on a stormy night tucked in at home.

Published July 11, 2023 by She Writes Press. ISBN 9781647424527. Paperback. 320 pages.