Just Around the Corner: Romance En Casserole

In the glittering chaos of a New York hotel, Gertrude Sprunt polishes more than fingernails. She polishes her dreams. Working as a manicurist among the comings and goings of the Knickerbeck Hotel, Gertrude catches the eye of two very different men: the loud, generous Mr. Barker, who offers security and spectacle, and the quiet, enigmatic Mr. Chase, who offers something harder to name. As the city hums outside their revolving doors, Gertrude must choose between the man who can give her everything and the one who makes her feel something real. Fannie Hurst, one of the most celebrated popular novelists of the early twentieth century, captures the electric tension of urban romance with sharp wit and genuine heart. This is a story about what women wanted when the world finally started listening: not just love, but agency. Not just a home, but a choice. The prose fizzes with Jazz Age energy while quietly asking the harder questions about class, independence, and what it costs to reach for something more. For readers who crave romantic fiction with teeth, this is the early twentieth century at its most intoxicating.