← Back to Literary Fiction rankings
Lake Effect cover

Lake Effect

Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney · Literary Fiction

40 Pulse Score

Based on recommendations from independent creators

historical fictionfound familysmall town
historical fiction
🌶️🌶️Mild — romantic tension, kissing, nothing explicit

#253 All Time

About this book

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nest and Good Company comes a wry and tender portrait of two families forever changed by one lovestruck decision that will reverberate for decades. It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible—but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood. Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York Ci

Check your library

Books with similar tropes

Last refreshed just now