Ever wish that a coveted opportunity would just drop out of the sky? That happens to the protagonists in Hot Air, Marcy Dermansky's hilarious novel about second chances and quirks of fate. Accidents don't get more freakish than this one: while two neighbors, each a divorced parent of a young child, enjoy a kiss on their first date in the man's backyard, an out-of-control hot air balloon plummets earthward and crashes into the pool. The basket contains Jonathan and Julia Foster, a "verified billionaire" tech firm CEO and his pampered wife, a former art student who doles out Foster Foundation money and adopts feral cats. Their unintended targets are Joannie, eking out a living as a freelancer now that the advance from her one novel is gone, and Johnny, an architect trying to raise money for a public housing project. For added freakishness: Jonathan was Joannie's first-ever kiss when they were 14.
Contrived? Sure is, but the fun of this lightning-fast read is what Dermansky (Hurricane Girl; The Red Car) does with that setup, starting with Julia's wacky suggestion: How about a partner swap? It would spoil the pleasure to give away more, but among the plot points are Jonathan and Julia's inability to become pregnant; the aspirations of Vivian, the Fosters' Vietnamese assistant; and several characters' uncertainty regarding what, exactly, they want out of life. This marvelous novel is a story about slamming up against one's limitations, but it's also about learning to distinguish intentions that are sincere from those that contain more hot air than the envelope of a balloon. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer