IF BOOKS COULD KILL

Roxie Mitchell loves beating up guys at the gym and going on wild adventures. She doesn’t believe in love, but she does believe in romance—at least as it’s concocted by her favorite author. A chance encounter with a mysterious panhandler and a meet-cute at the library make her wonder if her offhand wish to be the heroine of the next Anna Matthews novel might have come true. Then the man of her dreams tries to kill her, which is definitely not a romance trope. In her race to escape him, she carjacks a white sedan. While it’s unfortunate that this car has an Uber passenger in the back, his knowledge of the conventions of crime fiction might just come in handy…Eberle spoofs on genre conventions while still delivering everything required of a romance novel. Grant Hoffman—the Uber passenger who reads mysteries—is a risk-averse college professor, and he serves beautifully as both a complement and foil to daredevil Roxie. Their clashing personalities will be familiar to romance readers, as will their difficulty trusting each other and their differing attitudes toward love. What Eberle adds to this formula is questions about what’s real and what only exists in the pages of the novel Anna Matthews is writing. This is a very silly book, and Eberle has cleverly created a world in which she can blame a lot of silliness on Anna Matthews. That said, the mechanics of the magic that shapes this story fall apart as the narrative advances. And, while they’re trapped in a crime novel, Roxie and Grant do some things that might be shocking and disturbing to a lot of readers looking for a lighthearted escape.