Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, 2011

Critically acclaimed, Rules of Civility made it to my library reserve list a few years back, but I could not get enough interest to read it.

Having just read Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow, I knew I wanted to read this book.  However, same struggle to begin the novel for some reason.

Once I did start the book though, I was transfixed and was transported to another world, as told from the self-aware, wry voice of Katey Kontent.

Set in the year 1938 in Manhattan, Katey and her friend Eve Ross are boardinghouse friends who meet banker Tinker Grey on New Year's Eve.

Tinker proves to be Katey's and Eve's entree into the moneyed and privileged society of Manhattan, where all is not as it seems.

Like A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility is filled with inventive story lines, snappy dialog and great sentences like:  "...in moments of high emotion - whether they're triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment - if the next thing you're going to say makes you feel better, then it's probably the wrong thing to say."

Memorable and surprising characters who Katey encounters include Anne Grandyn (Tinker's "god-mother"), Wallace Wolcott, Dicky Vanderwhile and Hank Grey.  Through chance encounters and a little proactiveness, Katey powers through her 20s to happily settle into a career and marriage.

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2015

A what-if/choose your own adventure story based on whether protagonist Hannah Martin stays out late with her high school sweetheart Ethan or return home, Maybe in Another Life kicks off with Hannah returning home to Los Angeles at the age of 29 after a few years in New York.

We watch how Hannah's life unfolds based on a seemingly trivial decision.

By staying out with Ethan, Hannah & Ethan rekindle their romance and she soon discovers that she is pregnant, a result of her affair with a married man, one of the reasons she fled New York.

Alternatively, by returning home early with her best friend Gabby, Hannah ends up in a car accident that causes her to lose her baby and realize that she needs to focus on making mature, adult decisions as she gets better.

In both versions of Hannah's life, she ends up doing what she is meant to do, becoming a nurse; while whom she ends up "happily ever with" differs. 

It's an interesting statement that there is not necessarily one person whom one is meant to be.  While for Gabby, there is one person with whom she is meant to be. 

This idea of a trivial decision in your 20s shaping the rest of your life is further explored in the next book I read, Amor Towles' Rules of Civility.