Where Love Lies

Cohen’s warm-hearted novel (first published in the U.K. in 2014) is a thoughtful, engaging analysis of what makes love and relationships tick. Felicity Wickham, an imaginative picture book author and illustrator, struggles with a lack of inspiration. She can’t seem to really settle into her supposedly storybook newlywed married life with Quinn, her doting, supportive, steady husband, in the English village of Tallingford. Felicity still feels the loss of her nomadic mother, Esther, and is unaccustomed to the settled small-town lifestyle embraced by Quinn and his family. She begins experiencing a strong evocative “phantom” fragrance that at first prompts memories of her mother but then evokes the passions of an earlier romance with the sexy but chaotic Ewan McKillan—not just the distanced memory of that love, but a complete reimmersion in the rapturous emotions of the time. Cohen’s well-rounded prose invites readers to closely examine the foundations of love and romance as the power of Felicity’s renewed feelings for Ewan causes her to question her love for Quinn and her life choices. Agent: Patricia Moosbrugger, Patricia Moosbrugger Literary. (Aug.)