Till I Kissed You

The third Fournette sibling from Cottonbloom, La. (where the other Fournettes found romance in Kiss Me That Way and Then He Kissed Me), gets his spotlight in this disappointing hormone marinade. The book opens with a coarse, passionate encounter between high school sweethearts Sawyer Fournette and Regan Lovell on the bed of a pickup, and most of the remaining verbiage reiterates how much they wish they were back there. But they’re not: 11 years on, their romance is technically long over. She’s the mayor of the Mississippi side of Cottonbloom, and he’s parish commissioner across the river. She loses all composure when she sees him; he signals his lust by mercilessly gaslighting her in a fashion that’s perhaps meant to be romantic but comes across as very creepy. Nominally, the two are organizing rival Labor Day festivals for their towns while trying to identify a harasser shadowing Regan, but since only one suspect is ever floated, and next to no work appears to go into the festivals, it’s hard to take these plot gestures seriously. Two pretty people salivate after each other; the rest is word count. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Aug.)