Nora Fis­ch­er is a rela­tion­ship ther­a­pist, and she thinks she’s in love with a man she’s nev­er met. She doesn’t even know his name, since their only form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion is through com­ments on shared doc­u­ments as he edits her anony­mous advice col­umn with only his ini­tials show­ing. As she grap­ples with her love for a mys­tery man, Nora is also tor­ment­ed by her new down­stairs neigh­bor and ex-boyfriend of her pre­vi­ous client, Eli. Nora and Eli begin play­ing games with each oth­er, try­ing to see who can make the other’s life worse — until they start to see each other’s true colors.

Unlike­ly Sto­ry is Ali Rosen’s third nov­el filled with wit­ty and charm­ing ban­ter between Nora and Eli. Nora spends all day hear­ing the deep­est secrets of her clients but doesn’t know how to be vul­ner­a­ble to the peo­ple in her own life. She also tries to find a way to grow the space between her and her over­bear­ing par­ents, who force Nora to solve all of their prob­lems. Eli is mourn­ing the loss of his beloved grand­moth­er and por­trays a tough exte­ri­or, selec­tive­ly choos­ing who can see the inner­most parts of him. The two ene­mies squab­ble until they real­ize how won­der­ful the oth­er actu­al­ly is, while Nora still tries to sort through her feel­ings for her mys­te­ri­ous edi­tor. Sur­round­ing these two pro­tag­o­nists is a cast of charis­mat­ic neigh­bors sev­er­al gen­er­a­tions old­er than Nora and Eli, and Nora’s opin­ion­at­ed best friend, Dane. All of whom push Nora to grow into her own voice and go after what she wants.

A per­fect book for fans of You’ve Got Mail or any oth­er Nora Ephron work, Unlike­ly Sto­ry is a heart­warm­ing romance about open­ing your heart and let­ting the right peo­ple see your true self. And, if you’re feel­ing hun­gry, this book will have you run­ning to pick up a box of black and white cookies.