Relationships | Book Chatter

The Ten Year Affair
By Erin Somers
Simon & Schuster, October 2025, 304pp.

The Short of It:

Compelling and thoughtful.

The Rest of It:

When Cora meets Sam at a baby group in their small town, the chemistry between them is undeniable. Both are happily married young parents with two kids, and neither sees themselves as the type to engage in an affair. Yet their connection grows stronger, and as their lives continue to intertwine, the romantic tension between them becomes all-consuming—until their worlds unravel into two parallel timelines. In one, they pursue their feelings. In the other, they resist. ~ from the publisher

I saw The Ten Year Affair on the Tournament of Books 2026 shortlist and was immediately intrigued. Luckily, I found it quickly on Libby and blew through it. It’s an amazing read in that you absolutely feel the conflict between these characters as well as the temptation. Oh boy, the temptation.

Cora is happily married to her husband. But is she really happy? Things have gotten rather safe. Her husband spends a lot of time smoking weed on the balcony while the kids sleep. The weed, well, it affects things in the bedroom. He’s struggling at work and she’s just miserable doing the same thing over and over both at work and at home.

Sam, is the dad of dads. His wife is an overachiever and very successful. He holds down the fort but is this his life now? Going to daddy and me classes and running the kids back and forth?

Sam and Cora end up at one of those baby and me classes and there is an instant attraction. Sam listens to Cora in the way that her husband does not. The two forge an immediate bond. Friendly, sweet. They decide to bring their significant others into the mix, signifying a platonic friendship, just looking for a little parental support.

That’s how it starts out.

Then, Cora begins to imagine an alternate reality. In that timeline, she and Sam are seeing each other. In the real world she refrains, they both do, but in that other timeline, things get serious pretty fast. The story bounces back and forth between the imagined timeline and what is actually happening until the two blur together and then there is only one timeline.

This is an intense read. Sam and Cora’s “relationship” spans ten years. Ten years of wishing, and hoping and then pulling the trigger. How does such a relationship affect these two families. How is it right, when two marriages are at stake? But it FEELS right. That’s the conflict. Erin Somers writes a story that has you going one way and then the other. Cora isn’t in the wrong. She’s not getting the attention she needs. And then, how could Cora do that? How could they start something while still fully involved with their spouses?

I would hazard to guess that anyone who has been married for say 15+ years or more, has experienced some of these feelings. Somers has created real, flawed, characters but ones that you root for even though what you are rooting for is potentially a marriage break-up. That’s conflict to the highest degree. If I had to assign a song to this book, it would be Depeche’s A Question of Lust.

Highly recommend. I went digging around to see what else she’s written and I see one other book, Stay Up with Hugo Best and I will for sure find a copy.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Writers & Lovers
By Lily King
Grove Press, February 2021, 336 pp.

The Short of It:

When it comes to love, do you go with the guy that feels right or the one that you can’t stop thinking about?

The Rest of It:

Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. ~ the publisher

Lily King has a knack for writing characters who are quite messy, but also extremely likable. Casey is a mess. She’s a “creative” working on a novel. A novel that is going nowhere because every time she sits down to write, she’s overcome with doubt. She’s just not good enough. She will be living in her old, moldy apartment forever and will always be that server at the restaurant who does things in a half-assed way and kind of gets away with it. Kind of.

The one thing Casey has going for her is that people tend to want to help her. Whether it’s bringing meals to a table she’s neglected or introducing her to something she’s never really had of her own—a family. After the death of her mother, she just drifts from place to place until she falls in love with two men, at the same time.

One man, a widowed dad with two adorable boys. The other, a writer like her, good but needing the motivation to get out there and in turn, someone who understands her hesitation when it comes to her own work. One seems like a guarantee for a happy life, the other less so but more tempting.

What do you do? She grows close to the single dad and yes, his kids but she sees the writing on the wall and he’s very clear that he wants her there. All of her. How do you balance your desire for a normal family life over what you believe you were meant to be?

The other guy, is elusive. The chemistry is there but there’s a push-pull thing that confuses her. Sometimes he’s fully present and then he’s not. She goes along, making both relationships work for a little bit, but eventually she has to make a choice.

This book has everything. An endearing protagonist, inner-conflict, messy and wonderful bits about being in love, and the art of writing. It’s a perfect package.

I am becoming a huge Lily King fan. I adored her most recent book, Heart the Lover so as soon as I finished it, I found this one and I re-read passages over and over again, took screenshots and just lingered in the writing. If you want a book to make you feel things, I highly recommend King’s work.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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