In Adelaide, the debut novel by Genevieve Wheeler, a vivacious American woman living in London (the eponymous Adelaide) falls head over heels for the enigmatic Rory Hughes. By turns charming and distant, Rory entrances her, and the two fall into a whirlwind romance that never seems on solid ground. When tragedy strikes, the cracks only deepen – and when things fall apart, Adelaide does too.
Wheeler’s novel traces the progression of a romance that at times seems too good to be true, at others bewilderingly futile. Adelaide is besotted with the flaky and inconsistent Rory, whose allure is obvious but whose commitment seems less so.
The novel sets out to explore why a woman might spend so long in a relationship that seems at times profoundly unsatisfying – one where “her emotional security seemed to be an afterthought for him”.
