A Table For Two

Lister (Love’s Sweet Surrender) enchants with a tale of two city slickers who find love in a small town. Nurse and amateur chef Serenity Wheeler left San Diego after a contentious breakup, landing in the idyllic Firefly Lake, Calif., and forging close friendships. When one of these friends, Andrea, takes a job in Seattle, she asks that Serenity show her brother around town. Software engineer Gabriel Cunningham isn’t thrilled to be relocating to Firefly Lake from Atlanta, but he agrees to take over the responsibility of caring for his grandmother from Andrea—secretly hoping he’ll be able to convince his grandmother to move back to Atlanta. Gabriel and Serenity get off on the wrong foot—culminating in Serenity throwing a container of brownies at Gabriel—but as they settle their differences and grow closer, Gabriel becomes much more enthusiastic about staying in California. Well-drawn supporting characters—including precocious local six-year-old Brianna—add charm, and Lister nails the pacing of her appealing protagonists’ path to love. Anyone who enjoys small-town and enemies-to-lovers tropes will be delighted. [em]Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary. (Aug.) [/em]