Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend

Alban debuts with an unabashedly fluffy sapphic romance set in 1850s London. Beth Demeroven’s newly widowed mother is anxious for her to find a successful match during her first season in society and save them from “dying in a hovel.” The available men are tedious, but Beth finds a friend in Lady Gwen Bertram. Despite it being Gwen’s fourth season without an engagement, her doting widowed father, the charming Lord Havenfort, puts no pressure on her, as he’s more interested in engaging her in fencing, chess, and political maneuvers to get the Matrimonial Causes Act, granting wives greater freedom to divorce their husbands, passed. Gwen and Beth discover that their parents were once involved and scheme to rekindle their old romance. If they marry, after all, it would save Beth from having to do so herself. As their matchmaking plays out, the women develop unexpected feelings for each other, realizing they want to be more than just friends. The people around them are encouraging about their connection despite the social mores of the time, and difficult topics like insolvency and spousal abuse show up as plot devices without real emotional resonance, keeping the tone light. For readers who want tenderness, not trauma, in their queer period fiction, this will hit the spot. Agent: Stacy Testa, Writers House. (Jan.)