Going in Circles (by Pamela Ribon)

Definitely her best work yet! I tore through this one, thought the characters were interesting (like the unsympathetic mom and her insta-BFF Francesca) and the descriptions of roller derby were done extremely well. Something I noticed (because an editor told me I wasn't doing it in my own manuscript) is how good she is at establishing a character with a few concrete visual details. Francesca and her fingernails, or Matthew with the smudges on his glasses. It grounds the whole story and was, from a writery POV, impressive.

I did wonder (based on the author's interview at the end) if Matthew was less sympathetic than he was intended to be. The Italy thing and busting up her miniatures especially, but overall, I didn't get many sympathetic beats from that character, so it was difficult to understand why Charlotte didn't just move on. Of course, "this is harder than it looks" is kind of the theme of the book, and some of those emotional descriptions rang very very true.

Also, my friend Trixie Biscuit is in the acknowledgments, so that was exciting. Yay, Pam!