Book Review: ‘The Write Off: A Novel’ By Kara McDowell

by | Mar 13, 2026 | Books | 0 comments


The book is in stores on Tuesday, April 7th from Berkley. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/4saiTkS

Margot Darling, nicknamed Mars, is a successful writer and is at the University of Arizona, where she went to college, for a book festival. She has a panel on Sunday and is looking forward to it, until she finds out that West Emerson, whom she went to school with, became friends and lovers and fell in love years ago, until it ended badly. He is a successful writer now as well, and Mars has no interest in being on the same panel as him. They end up talking and hanging out, and things thaw a bit between them. We learn via flashbacks their complicated history. In the present time they make up, have hot sex, and things seem to be going well between them, until it isn’t and they go their own ways, and it may be the end of them. A solid rom-com that hits the right notes. Watching these two rediscover each other after their bad history is heartwarming and fun.