The Good Ones Are Taken: A Novel

Cozy friends to lovers with medium spice. Maggie's getting over a bad breakup and has nine months to find a date to her best friends' destination wedding. This of course means firing up the apps and sifting through the sludge to uncover a travel-worthy partner. You know how it's going to go, so it's all about settling in and enjoying the ride. And McCoy does not disappoint. No one has a better ear for dialogue and every chapter is a feast for the senses. It's not dinner and a date, it's spicy lamb with red chilies and Thai basil, crab-stuffed prawns with bucatini pasta and blistered Marzano tomatoes, or porcini-mushroom-and-Gruyère-stuffed pork tenderloin with a spinach-and-Parmesan risotto. It's clear she's drawing on her past life as a private chef and we all benefit from it. Frankly we could all use a bit more Garrett energy in all our lives too.