Pick-Up

Dahlia debuts with a pitch-perfect rom-com that finds divorced Brooklynite Sasha Rubinstein struggling to balance her career as a freelance video producer with caring for her two children. This is made harder by frequent altercations at school pickup with the man she’s nicknamed Demon Dad after he snapped up Sasha’s daughter’s after-school drama slot for his own child. Ethan Jones, a divorced father and editor-in-chief of Escapade magazine, really isn’t trying to make Sasha’s life more complicated; ­in fact, he’s wildly attracted to her. When Sasha is contacted by Escapade to produce video content on the exclusive Caribbean island of Citrine Cay, she’s ecstatic­—until she realizes Ethan will be coming along. Working together, their walls soon come down, and their blistering chemistry draws them together. But their steamy vacation fling may not hold up in the real world—especially as after-school politics heat up and a fellow mom works to sabotage their relationship. Dahlia leads readers on a delightful journey, replete with snappy prose, appealing characters, and wit. Fans of enemies-to-lovers rom-coms won’t be able to resist. (Dec.)