A sharply observed, emotionally resonant tale…
A wealthy widow and a weary outreach worker build a partnership neither of them expected in Lentz’s compelling debut. Claire has money, connections, and a growing sense that writing checks isn’t enough. Erica has experience, exhaustion, and a job hanging by a thread. When their worlds collide at a homeless encampment, they clash hard. But soon, confrontation turns to collaboration, and the two women launch a daring plan to house ten unhoused women in a community of their own.
Lentz’s writing is sharp, brisk, and funny without undercutting the emotional weight. She writes with clarity and bite about structural inequity and the fraught nature of “helping.” Supporting characters, from a savvy single mom caught between systems, a streetwise woman with a knife and a code to a cop who walks the line between ally and enabler, add depth and complexity. But it’s Claire and Erica who carry the novel’s emotional weight, offering two radically different but equally compelling lenses on what it means to build something real, one imperfect step at a time.
A piercing and hopeful novel about second chances, uneasy alliances, and the work of becoming useful again.
Sibylline Digital First
Pub date June 6, 2025
ASIN B0F395PGF1
Price $5.99 (USD) Kindle edition
