Julia London adds wit and levity to serious themes in her heartfelt rom-com Nice Work, Nora November.
Nora November is a disillusioned, 31-year-old personal injury lawyer in Austin, Tex. While clinically dead after a surfing accident, she encounters the spirits of a beloved dog and her deceased grandfather. His advice reawakens her life priorities and sends her on a quest to change everything, including her hairstyle and wardrobe and her relationships with her sister and their critical, domineering father. Months earlier, Nora was embroiled in a corner store robbery, where she bonded with fellow hostage Jack Moriarity, a compassionate, 33-year-old hospice and palliative care nurse. Following the crime, the romantically attracted duo misplaced each other's contact info and became challenged with devising creative ways to reunite.
After one of Jack's charges dies, bequeathing him a plot at a local community garden, things take comedic turns. Nora decides to pay homage to her grandfather by sprucing up his plot at the very same garden, but the would-be lovers remain separated due to a series of missed opportunities. Amusingly timed connection mishaps of this sort keep the soul mates chronically apart and raise the romantic tension as they each face transformative personal complications.
London (It Started with a Dog, You Lucky Dog) subtly explores traumatic issues including clinical depression, eating disorders, physical and emotional abuse, and the difficulties of facing up to familial expectations. With humor and heart, London adds another entertaining rom-com--with a message--to her appealing body of work. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines