Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada, expected publication November 10th

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):

From the number-one New York Times best-selling author of the Gossip Girl series, a deliciously irresistible novel chronicling a year in the life of four families in an upscale Brooklyn neighborhood as they seek purpose, community, and meaningful relationships—until one unforgettable night at a raucous neighborhood party knocks them to their senses.

Welcome to Cobble Hill.

In this eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood, private storms brew amongst four married couples and their children. There’s ex-groupie Mandy, so underwhelmed by motherhood and her current physical state that she fakes a debilitating disease to get the attention of her skateboarding, ex-boyband member husband Stuart. There’s the unconventional new school nurse, Peaches, on whom Stuart has an unrequited crush, and her disappointing husband Greg, who wears noise-cancelling headphones—everywhere.

A few blocks away, Roy, a well-known, newly transplanted British novelist, has lost the thread of his next novel and his marriage to capable, indefatigable Wendy. Around the corner, Tupper, the nervous, introverted industrial designer with a warehouse full of prosthetic limbs struggles to pin down his elusive artist wife Elizabeth. She remains…elusive. Throw in two hormonal teenagers, a 10-year-old pyromaniac, a drug dealer pretending to be a doctor, and a lot of hidden cameras, and you’ve got a combustible mix of egos, desires, and secrets bubbling in brownstone Brooklyn.

Smart, sophisticated, yet surprisingly tender, Cobble Hill is highly entertaining portrait of contemporary family life and the colorful characters who call Brooklyn home. 

My review:
This book looks at a cast of characters all living in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Cobble Hill. Through these characters we are introduced to a variety of different issues as each character is dealing with different things. They were all a bit strange in their own way, and it was fun to see what they were up to. The issues they dealt with included moving to a new country, writers block, parenting teenagers, attraction to someone who isn’t your partner, and frankly just being a teenager. As these characters are navigating these different things, they are all connected to each other in some way, and the neighbourhood makes living in the big city feel like a smaller town.

There is not much more to say about this book because I don’t want to spoil anything, but just know that this was completely surprising and not at all what I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it!