Fern Moretti has always known where she’s going next—and she’s always going somewhere next. Until now.
At forty-something, Fern has built a life around work, travel, and never staying in one place long enough to get too comfortable. But when her next international assignment suddenly stalls, she finds herself back home in Alameda, California, with her eight-year-old daughter, her big Italian family, and a mother who is far too interested in what Fern’s astrological chart has to say about her love life.
Then there’s Marco Patris.
Handsome, charming, ridiculously orderly, and firmly planted in Alameda, Marco is everything globe-trotting Fern isn’t. He likes his life—and apparently his house—just so. He’s comfortably set in his ways. Fern is always planning where she’ll go next. Yet from the moment they meet, she feels a pull to stay she can’t quite explain.
When the grand opening of her father’s second Italian bakery throws Fern and Marco together, she discovers he’s not only a little Felix Unger-ish, but also bossy, opinionated, and far too accustomed to getting his own way.
And, unfortunately, ridiculously kissable.
Then things get even stranger. Marco’s mother reads Tarot. Fern’s mother comes from a long line of Sicilian women with a witchy heritage—and while Fern may roll her eyes at the spells, potions, and incantations, her mother is happily passing them along to Fern’s eight-year-old daughter.
Fern doesn’t believe magic or fate gets a vote in her future.
Her family has other ideas.
As Fern and Marco work side by side, the life she’s spent years carefully constructing begins to feel a little less certain. Because the man who should make her want to pack her suitcase may be the very reason she can’t seem to leave.
Funny, romantic, and full of Italian-family chaos, Merry-Go-Round Man is a forty-something romance about fated mates, astrology, Tarot, Sicilian witchy traditions—and discovering that sometimes love really is written in the stars.
Perfect for readers who enjoy:
Themes: Fate vs. free will, coming home, family chaos and family love, Italian-American heritage, Sicilian witchy traditions, astrology and Tarot, choosing to stay, finding love in the second half of life, Bay Area setting.
Tropes: Fated mates, opposites attract (globe-trotting free spirit vs. orderly homebody), forty-something heroine, heroine with a young daughter, forced proximity (working side by side at the family bakery), meddling family, witchy family, slow-burn banter, a heroine who insists she’s leaving but keeps finding reasons to stay.
Read-Alikes: If you loved Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins, or Book Lovers by Emily Henry.
Q: What is Merry-Go-Round Man by Michelene Esposito about?
A: Merry-Go-Round Man is a funny, romantic forty-something romance about Fern Moretti, a career-driven traveler who has never stayed in one place long enough to get comfortable. When her next international assignment stalls, she lands back in Alameda, California, with her eight-year-old daughter and her big Italian family. There she meets Marco Patris, a charming, tidy, bossy homebody who is everything she isn’t. Fern doesn’t believe in fate, but her family, with its astrology, Tarot, and Sicilian witchy traditions, has other ideas.
Q: Is Merry-Go-Round Man a romance or women’s fiction?
A: It’s primarily a contemporary romance with strong family-driven, women’s fiction energy. Expect a love story, plus a heroine rethinking the life she built and a lot of Italian-family humor.
Q: What’s the tone?
A: Warm, funny, and full of chaos, with sparring between two very different people and a family that never stays out of it.
Q: Is there magic in the book?
A: The magic is more folklore and family tradition than fantasy. Fern’s mother comes from a line of Sicilian women with witchy heritage, and she’s happily passing spells and incantations to Fern’s daughter. Marco’s mother reads Tarot. Fern rolls her eyes at all of it, but the book plays with whether fate might have a say.
Q: Who is it for?
A: Readers of romantic comedy and women’s fiction who like family-centered stories, Italian-American settings, banter-driven love stories, and heroines past their twenties.