Love at First Set

This sentimental and lightly fitness-themed sapphic romance, Dugan’s adult debut (after the YA novel Some Girls Do), centers themes of social class and found family. Gym attendant Lizzie McCarthy agrees to accompany personal trainer James Madalay—her best friend, coworker, and the son of her bosses—to his sister’s wedding, largely in hopes of getting on his parents’ radar for a promotion. She meets an attractive and distressed drunk woman in the bathroom at the rehearsal dinner and advises her to leave her unappreciative partner, not realizing that she’s speaking to the bride, Cara, who then walks away from the wedding. Cara crashes with James in the wake of this catastrophe, and James encourages Lizzie to act as her distraction, not expecting the connection between the women to turn to romance. It’s a cute premise, but the antagonists—James and Cara’s snooty parents and Lizzie’s dysfunctional mother—are disappointingly flat. Meanwhile, Lizzie’s shift from thinking “My home isn’t a person, my home is the gym” to making grand romantic gestures feels a bit abrupt. Still, the endearing dynamic between James, Cara, and Lizzie as they brave fear of intimacy in both friendship and love carries the story. There’s plenty to enjoy here. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (May)