I Owe You One

Kinsella (Surprise Me) offers another winning novel, this one revolving around Fixie Farr, the youngest of three siblings, and Farrs, the home-goods store her deceased father created. When Fixie’s mother, who’s been running their West London store primarily with Fixie over the nine years since her husband’s death, visits her sister in Spain for a long overdue vacation, everything goes awry—particularly since Fixie has trouble when it comes to facing down her siblings. Oldest brother Jake, dazzled by everything posh, wants to turn the store into an upscale shop of overpriced merchandise, while airheaded Nicole wants to transform it into a yoga destination—both oblivious to the store’s bottom line. Then Ryan Chalker, Fixie’s forever crush who abandoned her to make it big in L.A., returns to the U.K. and keeps upending her life with on-again/off-again promises of a relationship. In the midst of the mayhem, Fixie does a favor for a handsome investment manager named Seb Marlowe, and the IOU he gives her becomes a back-and-forth transaction between them that starts as a flirtation, then becomes more complicated, and finally deepens into something more substantial. Kinsella’s reliable mix of humor and spot-on insights into both romantic and familial relationships adds spice as Fixie finally learns to take charge and speak her mind, making this a surefire hit for Kinsella’s fans. (Feb.)