A Little Something Different: Fourteen Viewpoints, One Story by Sandy Hall

It's a college meet-cute, will-they-or-won't-they kind of story but what really makes it "something different" is all the outside perspectives we get on this not-quite-a-relationship.

Lea and Gabe's lives circle the same places and people. Their trajectories keep crashing into one another, and everybody sees how they're destined to be together - except the couple themselves. So we see their relationship through the gossip of the Starbucks baristas, through the matchmaking of their creative writing instructor, through the Chinese food delivery driver, and even through a squirrel (and the damn bench!) in the greenspace where they frequently sit.

It's a fluffy book. And while it's not high art, it's certainly not the worst either. Hall gets extra points for trying a unique approach in the storytelling narratives (but the bench was a bit too far, just saying). You want to cheer for these two characters to get together, and yet you see why they're hesitant or what's pushing them away. It's pretty funny how so many other people are emotionally invested in these two getting together, and it makes you wonder if someone is "shipping" your life that you don't know about!

Love May Fail by Matthew Quick

In a mid-life crisis meltdown mode (after not quite shooting her philandering husband), Portia Kane returns to her childhood home to figure out her next step - little knowing it will lead her on an epic journey of discovery and disappointment.

Author Matthew Quick has become famous for his fair, honest depiction of human frailties and mental disorder, and this novel is well within that wheelhouse. Every character in the book has his or her issues, but they're not presented as a problem to be solved, just a thing to be experienced.

Portia's quest to "save" her beloved high school English teacher leads her down nostalgia's path in many ways, and the book is full of 1980s-vintage metal and hard rock lyrics, puns, and references. It's also full of strange coincidences, chance meetings, and what may be divine inspiration.

My only quibble is that I found the character Danielle Bass flat. She's a means to move the story along, but I don't feel that we really get her perspective or struggles in any real way like we do every other character in the novel.