Vera Stein Is Fine – Julie Murphy

Julie Murphy is known for writing delightful rom-coms with plus size protagonists, so you know roughly what you’re getting with Vera Stein Is Fine – but it’s the adultiest of her novels that I’ve read so far, and I tell you right now she is wasted in the young adult section. I’m thrilled that I got to read this one on audio through the Libro.fm ALC program.

The titular protagonist, Vera Stein, is a 40-something assistant to a Hollywood himbo (slash-two-decade-long-situationship). She once dreamed of being a screenwriter, but that got put on hold as she cared for her mother through a long battle against colorectal cancer. Now, her mother is dead, and her grandmother Ruby has sold their family home to move into a Palm Springs retirement community with other Hollywood has-beens. Long story short, nothing in Vera’s life has gone to plan.

When she finds out her boss plans to fire her (and she can no longer sleep in his mansion’s pool house), Vera is left with little choice but to follow Ruby into the Starlight Palms Senior Living Center. She wrangles herself employment at the center as events coordinator, and soon realises that the community’s resident doctor is Eli – her now-former-boss’s college roommate. The one she married on a lark in Vegas, and divorced after a single steamy night together, nineteen years ago.

Eli offers to let Vera (and her 13 year old Pomeranian) stay in his spare room in staff housing, but is it really a good idea to live under the same roof as her ex-husband? Given that the only alternative is crashing on Ruby’s chaise lounge (and bearing witness to her grandmother’s very active sex life), Vera figures it’s the best she can do, for now.

Vera Stein Is Fine is a novel about fresh starts and second chances. It’s a great reminder that life isn’t over until it’s over – even if you’re living in a retirement village and you have no idea what to do next. The prose has strong Samantha Irby vibes, which I absolutely love. It does get slightly cheesy towards the end, but that’s forgivable in my view (it’s a rom-com, after all). If you’re a fellow millennial looking for something a little relatable and reassuring in your romance, Vera Stein Is Fine is the book for you.

Read Vera Stein Is Fine on audiobook via Libro.fm here. (affiliate link)