A solid debut by a new Canadian author that I was REALLY excited for and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't quite as amazing as I had been hoping. Set in a future world of 2067 Florida where residents of The Palm Meridian Retirement Resort, a Sapphic queer commune essentially, are living their best lives, one member (Hannah) decides she wants to end her life after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.

With flashbacks to the 2020s Montreal, we get to learn more about Hannah and the love of her life, Sophie, an Olympic gold winner, fell in love and later fell apart and how Sophie went home to Montreal when her father was dying from cancer. Moving, tender and heartfelt, this was original and well-written with lots of emotional depth and imagination.

It was good on audio too and I would recommend it for fans of books like The brilliant life of Eudora Honeysett or Girlfriend on Mars. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

A highlight of spring reading so far. Delighted to include this title in the May edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)