Named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME , Elle , and Marie Claire “Ada Calhoun writes with absolute clarity about the giddiest and most destabilizing feeling—the crush. This novel made me feel dizzy and I loved every second. Calhoun can seduce me any day of the week.” —Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow When a husband asks his wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both—sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life—a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband” and “wife” force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose. Using the author’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in postpandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it’s possible to love—friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world’s good books, and most of all one’s own deep sense of purpose. “Feels like a brainy rom-com that could have been adapted by the late great Nora Ephron . . . The true romance at the heart of the book is a recovery of self . . . Crush reveals the sly ways we delude ourselves into accepting what’s good enough and the liberating ways we can recover our joie de vivre as well as our autonomy.” —The Boston Globe “Ensnaring . . . A breezy humor brushes most every page . . . Calhoun makes the specific universal by pointing it all back toward the puzzle most of us spend our whole lives working out: love in its many forms.” — Associated Press “A taut, hilarious novel about the pitfalls of polyamory. Against a backdrop of Manhattan intellectuals and artists, Calhoun dives deep into the dos and don’ts of devotion.” —Hamilton Cain, TIME “A wry critique of the sexual confines of marriage… [In Crush,] Calhoun’s cleverest feat is blowing us along in this whirlwind of desire and possibility. As ever, Calhoun suggests, women must carve some new path through a thicket of emotional briars. That may sound grim, but rest assured this is not another tale about women’s sexuality that’s so depressing.” — The Washington Post “It’s an unusual love story… Very seductive, an interesting take on marriage and love. —Kwame Alexander, naming Crush the best romance of the month on the TODAY Show “Calhoun has a gift for explaining complicated emotions with concise, carefully chosen prose. If you’re a woman of a certain age whose hot flashes have reignited other fires within, you will read and feel recognized.” — Vulture “For decades, male anxiety, depression and sexual dissatisfaction passed as capacious themes for fiction (see: 20th-century novels by White guys named John). That such audacious writers as [Ada Calhoun] are turning those themes on the lathes of their own sharp fiction isn’t just fair play, it’s cause for celebration.” —Ron Charles “Ada’s new book, Crush, is a novel, and in many ways it circles similar themes, but this one feels like a rollicking rom-com.” — Anna Sale, "Death, Sex & Money" Slate Podcast “Ultimately, Crush explores when to realize a partnership has reached an impasse, and when to take yourself on a new adventure.” —Jezebel “Her giddy new romance sets the stage for an exploration of marital constructs and what it means to seek desire at any age.” —Bustle “Calhoun ( Also a Poet , St. Marks is Dead ) makes the leap to fiction with a fizzy and powerful exploration of modern marriage—and the pitfalls and excitements of redefining marriage while you’re inside of it. It’s a story about love, in so many of its forms, and the chaos that can come from a crush. It’s both more than a romance novel and absolutely a romance novel. It’s a delight.” — Lit Hub “Calhoun masterfully captures the intoxicating, sometimes perilous thrill of desire—and the complexities that come with it.” — TheSkimm "Crush is a charming diversion... a contemporary updating of a 19th-century epistolary romance novel. Imagine if Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning wrote incessant emails to one another." — New Zealand Herald “Book of the Day” “Highbrow & Brilliant” — New York Magazine Approval Matrix “Deep and thought-provoking, with hot sex scenes” — Emily Gould, The Cut “ Crush is a gripping read about finding new love in midlife.” — Naomi Watts "Ada Calhoun’s Crush is sexy and silly and hopeful." — Lena Dunham, Good Thing Going “Ada Calhoun writes with absolute c