August 28, 2023
Farmer (Out on the Ice) pays tribute toIt’s a Wonderful Life with this satisfying if predictable queer contemporary retelling, complete with a sapphic romance and a drag queen guardian angel. Bailey George longs to leave her hometown, Lanford Falls, for an adventure, but obligations to the community and memories of her late father keep her tied down. Things aren’t all bad, however: her teenage crush, Maria Hatcher, has just moved back to town and the two are steadily growing closer. Over the course of the week leading up to the town’s annual Winter Wonderfest, Bailey grows more and more frustrated with small-town life, until consecutive disasters on the day of the festival lead her to believe the town would be better off if she’d never been born—a wish that magical drag queen Clara happily grants, thereby revealing all the ways in which Lanford Falls and Bailey need each other. It’s a goodie bag of romance tropes: edenic small town, childhood sweethearts reunited, and Christmas magic, to name just a few. The result is easy reading rounded out by a sweet but chaste love story. It might not stick long in readers’ minds, but it’s a solid festive option for fans of the original. Agent: Eva Scalzo, Speilburg Literary.
