Her Perfect Affair

Oliveras tops her excellent debut, His Perfect Partner, with this revelatory, realistic second romance set among the Puerto Rican community in contemporary Chicago. Catholic school librarian Rosa Fernandez is known to be steady and responsible, but her two sisters don’t know she’s hiding a passion for wealthy family friend Jeremy Taylor, an IT specialist. When Rosa learns that Jeremy will soon be going to Japan for several months, she risks a single romantic farewell night with him. Despite their careful use of birth control, Rosa gets pregnant. They’re both shocked, but they work together to find a solution. Love and advice from their families, reassessment of their working lives, and the eventual revelation of closely held personal pains all help Rosa and Jeremy develop a full commitment to each other. Oliveras’s integration of cultural and class differences, familial expectations, and career objectives into the couple’s romantic decision making immeasurably enriches a moving plot about good people making difficult choices. Agent: Rebecca Strauss, DeFiore & Co. (Apr.)