Fun, fantastic, big-hearted and filled with genuine laughs, The Bump is a breezy, fun, but emotional ride through America. It’s the perfect beach read.

Serious minded commercial director Wyatt Wallace and breezy magazine columnist Massimo ‘Biz’ Petterelli are trying to have a baby. Sure, their neurotic Airedale, Matilda, keeps them plenty busy, and their entertainment industry jobs drive them crazy, but a kid’s the next natural step in their loving marriage. They should be excited that their California-based surrogate, old friend Flora, will pop in nine months.

But instead they both totally freak out. They forgo flying directly to California to be with Flora and decide to take a cross-country road-trip from New York to LA. Along the way, they vow to visit important stops, friends, and relatives. But as time goes on, cracks in their relationship start to show up, making them wonder if they’re meant to stay together.

I’m deeply soft for road trip romances, and I’m deeply soft for couples who stand tall throughout disastrous circumstances. Biz and Wyatt go through it in this book, and not just because the baby has put their relationship through an earthquake. Biz was a child actor before he became a magazine writer, so you get lots of views of his childhood and how acting has formed and shaped him. Biz’s father has cancer, and Wyatt has a dysfunctional family he never speaks to. They have wonderfully odd friends and magnetize wonderfully odd events to them. Of course they’re going to be great parents – they just don’t know that yet.

The Bump is all about imperfections and how love helps put those flaws into place. It’s a fantastic, emotional, mostly lighthearted read that readers will bite into with ease.