Four Weekends and a Funeral, a refreshing, seriocomic romance by first-time author Ellie Palmer, is set in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
Dependable Alison Mullaly dated impulsive, wanderlust-filled Sam Lewis for only a few months. Sam was an adventurer and thrill seeker, while Alison lived a more cautious and deliberate life, which included undergoing a preventative double mastectomy because of her family's history of breast cancer and her positive test genetic result for the BRCA1 mutation. Though she tried, Alison could not keep up with Sam, and their relationship came undone. Six weeks after dumping Alison, Sam died in a car crash. At his funeral, his sister, Rachel, asks Alison to pretend that they never broke up. Rachel feels that her grieving parents will find peace if they believe that Sam was about to finally settle down with a "nice girl" like Alison.
After Sam's funeral, his family asks Alison and Sam's best friend, Adam Berg, to clean out Sam's apartment. Alison finds Adam uptight, ill-kempt, and grumpy. He, too, harbored issues with Sam, and their relationship was secretly fraught. However, over four weekends, as Alison and Adam pack up Sam's things, they lock horns until romance blooms. This leads them to grapple with their conflicted feelings about Sam, themselves, and each other.
Wry banter, compelling subplots, and escalating sexual tension infuse this sparkling enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story that examines sadness and guilt, loss, and grief. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines