Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.
When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.
The Rachel Incident was on a lot of "Best of 2023" lists, so I was sure to add it to my TBR pile. Of course I loved the fact that the book takes place in Ireland, but what I loved most was Rachel's relationship with James. They were fun friends and I found myself chuckling at their antics. Most of the book is told in the form of a flashboack, so there were different attitudes about things. I felt bad for Rachel, she was often put in the middle of the relationship of James and his suitor. But I loved how she played that to her advantage. And in the end, everything worked out the way it was supposed to for both Rachel and James.
Details:
- The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
- Pages: 293
- Publisher: Knopf
- Publication Date: June 27, 2023
- Buy it Here!
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