Rachel Sinclair is about to turn 40, as her doctors, her friends, and even strangers keep reminding her. As she prepares to enter a new decade, she reckons with her past—from the accidental drowning of her father to the self-centered behavior of her “wacko” mother, and, later, an ectopic pregnancy when she was 29. Since then, she’s built a strong community around herself as the owner of the beloved restaurant Palms on the Cape. Her clientele is made up of visitors and diehard regulars, but especially close to her heart is her longtime friend Carlos Hannigan, a retired Boston Red Sox pitcher who now owns a construction business. During the restaurant’s karaoke night, Rachel meets the charismatic Tripper Chambers and his friends, who make up the self-styled “A-List”—a study group at the Vermont Business Collaborative on vacation for the week as they work on their capstone. She feels an immediate attraction to the 32-year-old Tripper, who questions her close bond with Carlos. Later, the story shifts toward Rachel and her friends as they try to reclaim control of her restaurant, just before her birthday. The business-related plotline is as compelling to read as the slow-burn, will-they-or-won’t-they romance between Rachel and Carlos: “You’re with him all the time, and you have been for years,” Tripper comments at one point. “I’ve just never had a female friendship like that”; Rachel replies with a classic rom-com allusion: “I guess we’re the answer to the age-old Harry and Sally question.” What truly stands out, though, is how the love and career stories never overshadow the emotional narrative of Rachel stepping into her 40s by healing familial and personal wounds.