The Second Time We Met

Love is easier found than kept in this sweet rom-com from Williams (Imperfect Arrangements). It’s love at first sight when free-spirited Afro-Caribbean event planner Cara Nightingale and white lawyer Henry Fitzherbert briefly meet on a London bus, and Cara beats herself up for leaving before getting his number. Luckily, fate throws them back together and, in an unusual move for a romance, they officially become a couple by chapter two. Their honeymoon bubble is burst, however, when Cara learns that Henry is the grandson of an earl and worries that his privileged background and her poor one won’t mix. Despite a warm welcome from the Fitzherbert family, Cara can’t help feeling she doesn’t fit in and worries her own boisterous relations will embarrass her. Of course, Henry’s life hasn’t been as charmed as Cara thinks, and his family have their own issues. Though he repeatedly tries to convince her that their differences don’t matter, expensive restaurants, games of croquet, and his family’s snobby associates leave her unsettled—but not as much as the return of her first love, who’s determined to win her back. Plenty of laugh-out-loud moments cushion the heartache here and Williams’s exploration of the British class system is on point. This is sure to charm. [em]Agent: Rukhsana Yasmin, Good Literary. (Aug.) [/em]