Meet Me in Madrid

Lowell’s debut ably combines blazing-hot eroticism with tender romance and sometimes-painful realism. Charlotte Hilaire received a PhD in art history from Yale several years ago and now works a frustrating job as a courier for a New Haven art museum. The job sends her on far flung trips, but prevents her from seeing the sights. When a blizzard strands her in Madrid while on assignment, she reaches out to Adrianna Coates, a professor at UCLA currently on sabbatical in the city and one of the few other queer women of color in their field. Their fond memories from graduate school quickly ignite into blistering passion, but being together long-term will require one woman to sacrifice her job and coast for the other. Lowell paints sharply observed portraits of both long-distance relationships and the world of academia, warts and all, the struggles of which sometimes bring down the mood, clashing with the sweet sexiness of Adrianna and Charlotte’s budding relationship. Occasional side conflicts fizzle out in ways that may be entirely realistic, but also feel fairly unsatisfying. Still, the endearing development of the relationship itself makes this worth checking out. Agent: Jessica Alvarez, BookEnds. (Nov.)