Love or Something Like It

“Through Lacey Brennan, this novel’s winsome heroine, Deirdre Shaw has written movingly about what it’s like to be displaced—to be a New Yorker living in L.A. and for a time in Nebraska, to grow up the child of divorce. The passages from Lacey’s childhood are especially compelling. And I’ll never forget the novel’s opening chapter.”—Joshua Henkin, author of Matrimony

“Love or Something Like It reads like the long-awaited letter from that friend of yours who decamped to L.A. a decade ago: newsy, funny, sad, triumphant. It’s a pleasure to settle in with Shaw’s narrator, warm, unpretentious Lacey Brennan, as she struggles out of a painful starter marriage and into her own life.”—,Caitlin Macy, author of The Fundamentals of Play

“A believable, honest and observant portrait of a woman who gets what she wants only after giving up what she thought she needed.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Bright and promising . . . [Deirdre] Shaw’s first novel unfolds easily, with well-crafted prose and vivid detail. . . . This is a great young-in-L.A. novel.”—Publishers Weekly

“A delicious, honest look at what it is to live, love, and languish in L.A. From the first celebrity-attended, social-climbing pool party, Deirdre Shaw’s fresh prose and witty observations will have you hooked.”—Katie Crouch, author of Girls in Trucks

“Deirdre Shaw’s gifts are enormous, and Lacey’s story, at once recognizable and wholly unique, is full of depth and heart. Shaw’s writing is witty, wrenching, and beautiful. This novel is an intimate portrait of a complex young woman, a stunning debut from an immensely talented young writer. Love or Something Like It is brilliant or something exactly like it!”—Lisa Glatt, author of A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That