Hand-me-down Heartache: A Novel (Strivers Row)

Nina Lander is a recent college grad, struggling to be independent, who has moved back home with her parents as she tries to start a career in sports broadcasting. But she’s increasingly frustrated with both her father’s treatment of her mother and her mother’s acceptance of her own unhappy life.

Though Nina is wracked with uncertainty, the one thing she thinks she can hold on to is her budding relationship with Maurice, a charming, handsome rookie NBA player. Nina rationalizes his silence as strength and his jealousy as love. When there is evidence of his infidelity, Nina is hurt but not surprised. Her father has cheated on her mother, and her brother has cheated on his girlfriends. All men cheat, Nina believes.

But then Maurice abruptly ends the relationship, sending Nina into an emotional tailspin. After she recovers and is on the brink of falling in love with Leo LJ Love, an up-and-coming rapper who has had a crush on her since high school, Maurice reenters her life, claiming to be a changed man. Will she take him back?