LIZZIE BLAKE'S BEST MISTAKE

A delightfully scatterbrained baker prefers one-night stands to relationships—until a sexy Australian marketing executive visits her city and turns her life upside down.

Lizzie Blake is relatively happy in spite of a lonely childhood. She has a tightknit group of friends and loves working as a baker, although she has a hard time holding down a steady job due to chronic lateness. Thanks to dating apps, she has all the sex partners she wants. Lizzie likes to love 'em and leave 'em. As usual, she expects to forget all about her latest paramour, a business traveler named Rake Thompson. But after Rake goes home to Australia, Lizzie discovers that her disorganized brain has really messed things up this time. She and Rake used an expired condom, and Lizzie is pregnant. She wants to keep the baby, but when she calls Rake as a courtesy to let him know, he shocks her by deciding to move to Philadelphia to be near Lizzie and their child. The two are determined to be friendly, platonic co-parents, but their attraction to each other causes delicious complications. Lizzie is unusual for a romance novel character. She's even more commitment-phobic than Rake, defying gender stereotypes. And Lizzie has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Her need for sensory input makes regular sex an important part of her self-care. Eddings writes with compassion about Lizzie’s difficulties keeping on top of things, and her sex-positive attitude toward Lizzie's love life is a win for feminism. Reading about a neurodiverse heroine like Lizzie is refreshing. This is a funny, tumultuous novel that will inspire readers to think about how different kinds of brains shape our human need for love and sex.

A quirky and engaging second novel from an up-and-coming author.