Winging It: A Tale of Turning Thirty

Smart, likable, and lost in life, Faith Banning is a twentysomething whose romantic ups and downs drive this elegantly written debut novel. After dating a middle-aged rake who can't commit and an ornithologist pothead going nowhere fast, she snares Mr. Right, whose suitability makes him a tad dull by comparison. Even so, Elizabeth Tippens brings spunk and dimension to characters who would be tediously typical in less talented hands (Faith is an aspiring actress; her fiance, a corporate lawyer). Her decision to write each chapter from the perspective of a different character makes for straggling loose ends, and there's a certain vengeful cruelty to the conclusion. The beauty of Winging It: A Tale of Turning Thirty, however, is in the writing; precise and knowing, it heralds the arrival of an author with a deftly seductive style. B+