Spring Fling

This underwhelming small-town rom-com from Noblin (Just Fine with Caroline) alternates between past and present to deliver a disjointed friends-to-lovers arc. Mylie Mason owns the thriving tackle shop Hook, Line & Sinker in Clay Creek, Ark., where she lives with her feisty Granny and younger sister, Cassie. She’s perfectly content with her small-town life, unlike her childhood best friend, Ben Lawrence, who left Clay Creek for Chicago 10 years before. Now Ben unexpectedly returns to town to sell his grandfather’s house, hoping to use the money to move to Boston, where he has a job offer as an economics professor. Mylie and Ben harbored secret feelings for each other as teenagers and don’t know how to act around each other as adults. Funny, endearing flashbacks make their early connection clear, but it’s difficult to see their chemistry in the present day. Frequent fights and miscommunications frustrate, and when their struggle to keep each other at arm’s length inevitably fails, their reunion feels rushed. Readers will struggle to root for this couple. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Lane Literary. (Mar.)