Love and Hot Chicken

Mary Liza Hartong. Morrow, $30 (272p) ISBN 978-0-06-330479-6

on Hollywood. Each killing proves harder than the last, as Death faces doppelgängers who each embody different aspects of Lulabelle’s personality—party girl, fashion model, homemaker, would-be artist—and comes to question her own identity and purpose. Worse, she even begins to sympathize with her targets. Woolf sucks readers in from the start and mines her clever premise for suspense and surprises. By turns sad, introspective, and defiantly optimistic, this tale of self-hatred, self-love, and self-discovery delights. Agent: Lina Langlee, North Lit Agency. (Jan.)

Hartong’s snark-filled debut mixes a laugh-out-loud lampooning of smalltown Southern life with a coming-of-age queer romance. It’s earthy, irreverent, and a hint mean-spirited, and the plot, while not quite an afterthought, is a lightly sketched bundle of implausibilities: PJ Spoon, 26, returns home to Pennywhistle, Tenn., to support her newly widowed mother after her father’s sudden death, abandoning her doctoral studies and an out-and-proud social life in the far more liberal Nashville. She distracts herself from grief with a job cooking at a chain eatery, the Chickie Shak, which has only two other employees: a redhead who calls herself Boof and has “a disposition so sunny it calls for SPF,” and an older woman named Linda who “can be a little testy,” PJ muses, “but I reckon most Lindas are. Every now and then she’ll call somebody sweetheart in a way that makes you want to piss yourself and die.” Chemistry instantly sizzles between PJ and Boof, but a shadow looms over their budding romance: mandatory participation in the franchise’s first ever beauty pageant. The absurd competition for the Chickie Shak Hot Chicken Crown exasperates PJ and Boof, animates Linda (who joyfully experiments with rhinestones), and fosters resentments that forestall conversations all three need to have if they’re going to grow beyond their Chickie Shak lives. The emotional beats are somewhat sporadic, but the one-liners are relentless. Hartong’s genuine comedic gift makes PJ’s story well placed to become a beach-read hit. Agent: Deidre Knight, Knight Agency. (Feb.) from Hameroff kicks off when careerfocused aspiring chef Lexi Berman meets budding musician Jake Taylor during a night out in New York City. The pair click and spend the night together—and then the next day and the day after that as well. It’s a full weekend of sex, laughter, and Lexi’s to-die-for blueberry pancakes. Come Monday, however, Jake leaves for L.A. to try to make a name for himself. Lexi expects Jake to call, and he does. For a while. Then he signs a record deal and his lead single—“Blueberry,” a song Lexi is sure is about her pancakes—blows up. Now the only time Lexi hears from Jake is when he’s on the radio. A year later, however, Jake appears on Lexi’s doorstep, fed up with his controlling management and driven back to her by the thought “when was the last time you were happy?” As their spark inevitably reignites, their blossoming relationship is tested by the paparazzi and Lexi weighs whether falling in love is too much of a distraction from her goals. Lexi’s conflict feels a bit flimsy, and the quick pace rushes through some key emotional beats, but it’s a fun premise and the characters charm. Hameroff shows promise. (Feb.)