TRAVELS AND TRIBULATIONS

One Summer Day in Rome Mark Lamprell (Flatiron Books, Aug. 1)

Art student Alice has come to Rome, looking for inspiration before settling down with her reliable fiance back home. Meg and Alec have come there in search of the perfect blue tile that will somehow make their home renovation complete (the couple’s marriage could do with a renovation, as well.) And Connie and Lizzie have shown up to scatter the ashes of their relatives. Everyone thinks they know the reason they’re in Rome, but it seems the city has other plans for them.

Swimming with Bridgeport Girls Anthony Tambakis (Simon & Schuster, July 11)

Ray Parisi has got a lot going on: Recently fired from ESPN, he’s wanted by the New York State Police, a Cambodian bookie wants to kill him, and, oh yeah, his exwife is shacking up with another man in his own house. Apart from that, everything’s great. Dashing from Connecticut to Las Vegas to Memphis, he hatches a madcap plan to win her back.

Less Andrew Sean Greer (Lee Boudreaux Books, July 18)

Failed novelist Arthur Less is staring at 50 with not much to show for it. When an invite to his ex-boyfriend’s wedding shows up in the mail, he decides to say “yes” to this and to a series of other invitations he’s received to literary events around the world. He embarks on a worldwide tour where he’ll almost fall in love in Paris, nearly fall to his death in Berlin and have other wild adventures.

Fly Me Daniel Riley (Little, Brown, June 6)

It’s 1972, and Suzy Whitman has no use for her degree from Vassar. Instead, she’s joined the hedonism of the Los Angeles beach scene and become a stewardess for Grand Pacific Airlines. Amid all the debauchery and fun, though, Suzy becomes involved in a drug-trafficking scheme.