The page turner

Emma would be content to stay in her grandmother's Michigan lakeside home instead of joining the family's snobby New York publishing house, one that only publishes high art, but not particularly salable, titles. She is secretly finishing a novel that she is sure will sell, though her family will never publish it. Her grandmother brought her up on happy endings and self-determination, and Emma feels the family has lost its way and has run through the legacy left to them. She also sees real danger in the proposed partnership with Marcus Flare, an uberpopular brand of a writer whose secret intention is to ruin Emma's family. Sleuthing and clever work with her sister and friends reveal the motives and inner workings of Flare's plot, and this, combined with loyalty and talent, undoes his conniving. Shipman's latest (after The Wishing Bridge, 2023) is a sweet if overly tangled story that emphasizes tradition over trends, storytelling over art, and family above all. A worthy addition for fiction collections.