Borough Press

Upcoming: LAKE EFFECT by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (Ecco)

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Some great news: there’s a new novel on the way from Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney! Some bad news: it’s not out until March 2026! I’ve been a fan of D’Aprix Sweeney’s work since her debut, the internationally-bestselling The Nest, and also very much enjoyed her second novel, Good Company. Ever since finishing the latter, I’ve been eagerly anticipating whatever D’Aprix Sweeney wrote next; so, I was very happy when I saw Lake Effect announced. I just have to be patient, now… Pitched as “a wry and tender portrait of two families forever changed by one lovestruck decision that will reverberate for decades”, here’s the full synopsis:

It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible — but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.

Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humor and insight, Lake Effect is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most.

Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s Lake Effect is due to be published by Ecco in North America (March 3rd, 2026) and Borough Press in the UK (March 12th).

Also on CR: Review of Good Company

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram

Quick Review: DEEP CUTS by Holly Brickley (Borough Press/Crown)

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The story of a complex, complicated, and oft-fraught relationship

Look, the song whispered to me, that day in my living room. Life can be so big.

It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy — who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it — can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night.

Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs — and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.

Holly Brickley’s Deep Cuts got a lot of pre-publication buzz, with early readers name-dropping novels like Daisy Jones and the Six as a comparator (mainly because this is also connected to music, and with a complicated central relationship). As it turns out, the buzz was justified: this is a very good novel, and I quickly found myself invested in Percy and Joe’s fates. Continue reading →

Quick Review: I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL by Natalie Sue (Borough Press)

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SueN-IHopeThisFindsYouWellUKHCWould you want to know what your colleagues say behind your back?

Jolene certainly doesn’t.

She’s riddled with anxiety, depressed, and hates her coworkers. The less she knows about them, the better.

So when a catastrophic IT f*ck up grants her access to all of their emails and private messages, she’s initially horrified. The last thing she wants is to be privy to their sad discussions about dying desk plants and marital troubles.

That’s until, with job cuts looming, she realises the power this new-found knowledge gives her.

But as she digs deeper and deeper into the private lives of her colleagues, Jolene uncovers a lot more than she bargained for… And the walls she’d so carefully built start crumbling down.

Natalie Sue’s debut novel, I Hope This Finds You Well enjoyed a lot of pre-publication buzz. It took me a little while to get around to reading it, but I’m happy to report that I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Quick Review: GROWN UPS / ADULTS by Emma Jane Unsworth (Gallery/Scout / Borough Press)

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UnsworthEJ-GrownUpsUSHCAn amusing, observant novel

Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She’s just lost her column at The Foof because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood.

Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue, and social media messages, Grown Ups is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age. It reckons with what it means to exist in a woman’s body: to sing and dance and work and mother and sparkle and equalize and not complain and be beautiful and love your imperfections and stay strong and show your vulnerability and bake and box…

But, despite our impossible expectations of women, Emma Jane Unsworth never lets Jenny off the hook. Jenny’s life is falling apart at her own hands and whether or not she has help from her mother or her friends, Jenny is the only one who will be able to pick up the pieces and learn how to, more or less, grow up. Or will she?

This novel received a good deal of buzz before it was released. Pitched in part as being akin to Fleabag, it promised to be a funny, honest and maybe painful look at modern life. As it turns out, it is. I quite enjoyed this. Continue reading →