The next thing you know

Nova Huston is a death doula, charged with ushering others through their last days. Her latest client, Mason Shaylor, is a famous musician who is suffering from the loss of feeling in his hands after overuse while playing his guitar. His condition wasn't necessarily terminal, but he hired Nova anyway in preparation for a life without music. As Mason's mother begins a quest to prove that Nova provoked her son's death, Nova must come to terms with her pain while also defending her work--and admitting to herself that she was in love with him. Strawser's latest (after A Million Reasons Why, 2021) is heartbreaking from page one, suffused with the tension of Mason's impending death and Nova's reckoning with his loss. Through several perspectives, including those of Nova's boss and her boss' daughter, Strawser paints a picture of the couple's tender journey in both the past and the present. A natural read-alike for Jodi Picoult's The Book of Two Ways (2020) and Jennifer Smith's The Unsinkable Greta James (2022).

Strawser (A Million Reasons Why) spins a magical tale of love and loss in her wildly unpredictable latest. After botched surgery renders accomplished singer-songwriter Mason Shaylor unable to play the guitar, he believes his life is over at 36. But is it? That is a question Strawser expertly explores through the fraught and impossibly beautiful story of Mason and his end-of-life doula, Nova Huston, who herself survived a terminal cancer diagnosis. When Mason arrives at Nova's office and implies he has a terminal condition, her business partner Kelly Monroe assigns Mason's case to Nova, who treats him at home. After his death (which appears to be a suicide), Nova and Kelly learn he was not terminally ill after all, and Mason's enraged mother files a lawsuit against them. As the story toggles back and forth between the past and present, Nova and Kelly attempt to understand what really happened to Mason, and Kelly learns Mason and Nova had fallen in love. The author skillfully keeps the plot twists coming, leading to a bittersweet yet ultimately comforting finale. Strawser sensitively handles the grief and pain that surrounds a death, and buoys this with a strong cast of supporting characters. This smart and tender story gives a nice payoff. (Mar.)