05/29/2026
Happy Staff Pick Friday! Today's pick is Emma Brodie's Into the Blue and comes from our Library Assistant, Brigit Baines.
Into the Blue opens on a 2013 picture of New York as AJ Graves is preparing for the final performance of a two-person show where she stars alongside Norah Drew, who is a famous actor and crowned as the sexiest man alive. AJ hates Noah the moment she lays eyes on him. She assumes he is too handsome, broody, and pretentious to be a down-to-earth person. Of course, this assumption is short-lived. They become friends over their shared fandom of a cheesy 1980s soap opera, The Astronaumicals. When it seems that their friendship would become something deeper, Noah ghosts AJ, but they are simply unable to stay away from each other.
The story flashes between their early careers, childhood dreams, and their successful careers, and the writing often leans more toward literary fiction than what we think of when we hear the word “romance.” Brodie is not afraid of heavy topics like addiction, chronic illness, and grief but she juxtaposes them well with the love and connection between these two characters. She truly makes you feel like this love story is fated.
I loved this book and would recommend it to fans of B.K. Borison and Carley Fortune, and to anyone who likes a more intricate love story and complicated love story when they read romances.
This book is available through BCCLS.
