How to Grieve Like a Victorian

An abundance of plot contrivances clutter YA author Reeves’s adult debut (following the Ripper series). Lizzie Wells is a professor of Victorian literature at a South Carolina university and the author of a bestselling YA adaptation of Wuthering Heights that has recently been made into a popular movie—but her happy life is upended when her husband of 15 years, Philip, dies in a car accident. Overwhelmed by grief, Lizzie elects to emulate Victorian women, famous for their long mourning periods, by wearing only black, carrying Philip’s ashes in her purse and a lock of his hair in a locket, and informing her students and colleagues that going forward she will only communicate via handwritten letters. Decamping to London for the summer with her son, she plays tourist and meets August Dansworth, author of pulpy thrillers. Lizzy is attracted to him, but is unsure if dating feels right. Meanwhile, her late husband’s best friend Henry, with whom she shared an almost-kiss, demands her attention as he works to settle Phillip’s estate. Reeves surrounds Lizzy with bickering colleagues, famous actors, and family drama, in a plot that leaps forward via convenient coincidence. The portrayal of grief doesn’t have much gravity and the romance itself is slight. This disappoints. (Dec.)