A review by momadvice
Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer

challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Fans of Carol will love this sapphic age-gap romance for their summer book stacks. In addition, readers praised Marin Ireland's audiobook performance, so I encourage you to try the novel in that format if you dive into this backlist debut. 

Sometimes the sign of a great book is the conflicted feelings that it leaves you with, and that was certainly the case with these morally gray themes around a surprising midlife affair and the subsequent consequences it causes.  

Merit is navigating a midlife crisis as she struggles to find her identity beyond being someone's wife and her daily challenges as a new mother. After a decade of marriage, her life has felt predictably dull and somewhat relatable for this reader. 

Rather than settle into being a stay-at-home mom, she decides to head back to the workforce, where she can find a sense of purpose again, a decision that her husband is initially thrilled about. 

However, through this job, she also finds herself longing for something more than her role as a wife and mother, and that is encouraged by her enigmatic colleague and boss, a Danish architect named Jane.
As Merit forms a close friendship with the brilliant and captivating woman, twenty years her senior, she admires her child-free life and even her marriage, which is on the brink of divorce. Jane's home and lifestyle become the ultimate escape from the daily responsibilities of Merit's realities as their work time blurs into social time with nonstop drinking and conversations that remind Merit of being young, carefree, and creative. 

What starts as simple escapes throughout their work day evolve into surprising and complicated feelings as Merit realizes that her attraction to Jane goes beyond this escapist world they have created. The stakes are high, including her small children and the mediocre marriage, and that relationship might work if they try again. But are these worth fighting for?

Building a believable and beautiful slow-build connection between these women worked.   This flawed yet compelling tale promises frank conversations about what it means to be in a midlife crisis now, and thought-provoking connections on motherhood make it an excellent choice for a book club chat.

My only criticism is that it all comes to a rather abrupt ending that, stylistically, was smart but deserved a few more pages of resolution for this reader. 

Found in Sarah's Bookshelves Summer Reading Guide, I’m so glad I finally read this backlist debut that’s been sitting on my Kindle since their Belletrist Book Club announcement.

Content warning: pregnancy loss

4 out of 5 Stars