Destination Funeral

Destination Funeral by Paige Harbison, 352 pages

When her magnetic and free-spirited mother Babe dies, Didion is summoned to her late mom's home, forced to spend the weekend with her sister and two friends from childhood, all of whom she has avoided seeing for years. Babe has left the island home to the four "kids" to do with as they wish — the only stipulation is that they must spend the weekend in the house together, with no phones or internet access. The four grudgingly agree, thinking that it's only 48 hours, but something happens when the clock ticks past midnight, and they're stuck reliving the same day over and over and over and over... None of the outside world is aware of it, but the four of them are determined to figure out how to break out of their time loop, even if it means they have to learn some lessons along the way.

This is the second book of Harbison's that I've read, and the second one with a plot device lifted straight from Hollywood — the first was a Sliding Doors "what if" plot, and this one was Groundhog Day (if you didn't read the first paragraph and missed all of the blinking neon arrows that pointed to it). The devices work, but it doesn't show a lot of creativity. Yes, the characters in this book grew and learned, but I didn't particularly like the way it happened. Not a horrible book, but not my favorite by a long shot.

Georgie, All Along

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn (2023) 331 pages

Georgie Mulcahy loses her job as a personal assistant to a famed screenwriter and director in the movie industry when her boss decides to dial it back and live a quieter life. Georgie moves back temporarily to her parents' home in small town Virginia, where her best friend Bel has moved with her husband as they await the birth of their first child. Georgie's parents are out of town, so Georgie will stay at their rather disorganized home and take care of their plants until their return. But her parents forgot that they had already found someone to watch the house before they knew Georgie was coming, so when Levi shows up, it makes for an awkward situation.

Levi is a gruff guy, a few years older than Georgie, a well-known troublemaker in the town in his teen years, who is estranged from his family. It's clear that Georgie and Levi are attracted to each other, but their attempts to communicate are often misunderstood, usually due to Levi's tumultuous past. It seems that they might eventually get together, but there is a lot to work through. Meanwhile, Georgie is still trying to find herself, and is using a "friend fic" book that she and Bel had written together just before they started high school, as a template for how to go back and redo the past.

After a bit of a slow intro, I found this to be a fast book filled with relationship nuances, while some of the characters attempt to answer the question of how to fill the blank spaces inside ourselves.