Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes

Moulin’s debut novel is a fun, lighthearted, and sexy romp guaranteed to please. Ally is a professor at Brown and a single mother who had her daughter, Lizzie, while in college. Ever since, Ally has obeyed all the rules, except once. One weekend, when her daughter is visiting her grandmother, Ally has a fling with Jake—a student in her class, 10 years her junior. At the end of the weekend she sends him away, urging him to live his life and not to tie himself down so quickly. Ten years later, Jake reappears, only now he is a superstar actor, and dating Ally’s adult daughter. Jake has never forgotten Ally, and she has certainly never forgotten him; she can’t believe he still has feelings for her after all this time. While Lizzie struggles to figure out a potential career, Ally realizes that there is never a good time to let love into her own life and must make a decision she never expected to have to make. Moulin’s writing background is in television, and it comes across immediately in the snappy dialogue, the sweetly comical conflicts, and the keen sense of mother-daughter dynamics. Though readers might find Ally and Jake’s romance unrealistic, it’s overcome by the exciting escapist nature of the story. Lizzie is the quintessential self-absorbed millennial, who redeems herself in the end, much to the reader’s delight. Moulin fast-paced, feel-good romp is a winner. (Aug.)