Double-Decker Dreams

MacMillan (The Heart of the Deal) delivers an insightful romance about what happens when expectations clash with reality. During a six-month stint in London, high-flying American consultant Kat spots the man of her dreams passing by on a bus and lets her overactive imagination run wild. She assumes he’s an upper-crust Brit and plots out an entire fanciful future for them together. Then she actually meets “bus beau,” aka Michigan school teacher Rory Cooper. At first, Kat places Rory firmly in the friend zone, still daydreaming of a fairy tale love. For his part, Rory is nursing a broken heart and isn’t looking for a relationship. As the pair grow closer, however, Kat slowly realizes that a solid, real-life connection is worth more than swoony fantasy. But when a friend of Kat’s innocently mentions Kat’s early romantic ideas of who Rory would be, a taken-aback Rory runs scared. Can they make their way back to love? MacMillan keeps readers guessing until the book’s heartwarming finale while ably demonstrating both the impossibly high standards set by rom-coms and the messiness of genuine love. A stellar supporting cast, especially Kat’s outrageous neighbor, Jules, provide solid underpinning. This appealing tale should win the author some new fans. (June)