ROOM SERVICE

A savvy New Yorker takes a chance on a long-distance romance.

Cameron Singleton has a few simple rules: Always use protection, never promise a woman anything you’re not willing to deliver, and move on quickly as soon as a female companion mentions the M word. With these in place, the investment banker has managed to remain New Orleans’ most eligible white bachelor well into his 40s. But from the moment he sets eyes on lovely Jasmine Washington, who’s in town from the Big Apple to attend Hannah DuPont-Lowell’s wedding to St. John McNair (The Inheritance, 2017), something feels different. Whether it’s Jasmine’s unusual looks (she’s the daughter of an African-American dad and a Filipina mom) or her cool self-confidence, Cam feels he simply must get to know the interior designer–turned–human resources specialist. Fortunately, he’s due in New York for his college fraternity’s annual reunion. And his timing couldn’t be better. A merger at Jasmine’s firm, Wakefield-Hamilton, led to mass layoffs, and her temporary stint at a social service agency has just ended, so she’s got plenty of time to join Cameron for dinner at Cipriani Club 55. When Cameron tempts her with the chance to be his plus-one at his fraternity’s formal dinner, she ups the ante, telling him she’ll accompany him on the glitzy dinner cruise if he spends the day at her aunt and uncle’s bed-and-breakfast on Long Island. Although her disastrous marriage left her determined to spend the rest of her days happily single, independent-minded Jasmine is intrigued by Cameron, too. Besides, how much can a relationship cramp Jasmine’s style if her significant other lives nearly 1,200 miles away?

Alers has the opportunity to stray off the beaten path exploring romance between folks who are not kids anymore and who have some intriguing baggage, but she’s just too intent on getting to the finish line to let these complications mature.