Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate
When her attorney husband disappears soon after their move to Los Angeles only to resurface in the emergency room in a sky-high manic state, Clare Stone must confront the cold reality that the man she married 15 years ago has become a dangerous stranger. Slowly, she pieces together the signs of Richard’s bipolar disorder she’s ignored over the years: his frequent agitation and irritability, his equally frequent bouts of excessive exuberance and his bursts of egocentric passion. But with her world rooted in constancy irreversibly shaken, Clare finds it increasingly difficult to resist the flirtations of the attractive gardener she and Richard hired to revitalize their yard. From the buzz of L.A. to a deadly confrontation, Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate follows the Stone family through the heights and depths of manic-depressive illness as they sort out what is real and what is an illusion.
Jaime Cat Callan, author of French Women Don’t Sleep Alone, describes Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate as “Mysterious, sexy and passionate,” adding “Alexis Rankin Popik’s debut novel of madness and mayhem in the City of Angels is sure to keep you up all night.”
Kirkus reviews adds, “A consistently engaging story. Popik skillfully extends the drama of living with mental illness beyond the domestic sphere.”