Lockdown on London Lane

Reekles (The Kissing Booth) pioneers Covid-19 romance in this all-too-realistic Love, Actually–style look at relationships in quarantine. When a resident of a London apartment building tests positive for Covid, the building’s management imposes a seven-day quarantine—much to the chagrin of the residents and their guests. Free-spirited Imogen is trapped in the apartment of her one-night stand, Nate. Ethan and his girlfriend, Charlotte, are unable to reunite upon her return from visiting her parents. Serena and Zach bicker over every little thing. Isla’s forced to show her new boyfriend, Danny, her messy, human side, shattering the perfect image she’d been trying to maintain. And Olivia, who’d been hosting a bridesmaids’ weekend for her best friend’s wedding, must wait even longer to get her apartment back to herself. With no one able to get in or out, some relationships are cemented while others are almost destroyed and feelings are clarified all around. Reekles’s capable plotting toggles between apartments and keeps readers wondering what’s next. The result transforms the harsh realities of quarantine into rom-com enchantment. Agent: Clare Wallace, Darley Anderson Literary. (Feb.)