The Ex Dilemma

Wright (The Secrets We Create) launches her Batchelor Life series with a juicy and melodramatic contemporary. When Joyce Batchelor, “CEO of one of the biggest Black media companies in the world,” declares that all of her grandchildren must marry or lose their inheritance, she’s not kidding around. She’s particularly focused on her grandson Wes, whose romantic escapades have recently been splashed across the internet by social media influencer Miss Tea, a Gossip Girl–esque figure focused on Black Detroit elites. Joyce reaches out to Wes’s first love, Albany Keyes, now a private investigator, to uncover Miss Tea’s identity and put a stop to her reportage. Reeling from a divorce that left her financially unstable, Albany has no choice but to take the job despite her lingering bitterness about her and Wes’s abrupt and devastating breakup as teenagers. Sparks soon fly between the reunited exes as Wes, with his grandmother’s ultimatum in mind, works to win Albany back. The result is a fast-paced and soapy second-chance romance with plenty of angst. Wright surrounds her leads with a robust supporting cast, many of whom will surely get star turns in future installments. This series has legs. (Feb.)