Everything seems to be going wrong in Tenley Ward’s life. It’s January 2027, and the draft has been reinstated; she fears that her college-aged son, Chance, could be drafted into a seemingly imminent third world war. Her marriage is also crumbling: After 21 years and four children, the drudgery of everyday life has dulled her relationship with her husband, Harrison. She enjoyed a promising career in television news before giving it up to raise her children. Recently, however, she’s found renewed purpose: The organization she directs, Mothers Opposing More Senselessness (MOMS), has acquired over 250,000 followers on social media. Outside the home, she feels empowered. When she meets a handsome former Marine known as Privately who served in Iraq (a man young enough to be her son), she immediately wants to make him the face of her movement. The chemistry between them is palpable; Privately is the first man in ages to pay her any real attention. But he has secrets of his own, including several arrests, and the growing bond between them eventually threatens to sink not only MOMS, but also her marriage. This is an exceptional look at a latter-day Mrs. Jellyby (Dickens’ matronly philanthropist in Bleak House), a woman so devoted to saving the children of strangers that she inadvertently neglects her own. Hinz excels in portraying the interior struggles of a woman at midlife, especially Tenley’s constant questioning of whether she is still beautiful; she feels a sudden flush of warmth when a man approvingly appraises her body, eagerly seeking one last romance. The will-they-won’t-they tension between Privately and Tenley powers the novel to its finish, culminating in scenes of chaste but erotically charged passion. The central question readers are left with is this: Will the resolution allow Tenley to find long-term fulfillment and love in a world that so values youth?