Labor Day is a pleasantly surprising take on a romance novel. The love story between Adele and Frank is told through the eyes of her 13 year old son Henry. Without spoilers, Adele is a single mother who doesn't get out of the house much anymore. On a rare trip out for back-to-school shopping at the beginning of Labor Day weekend, Henry encounters an injured Frank in the store who then asks for Adele's help. The book focuses on that holiday weekend when Frank serves as a father figure for Henry and a partner for Adele. Meanwhile, Henry's obsession with girls and desire for sexual encounters muddles with his attempts to understand the role of love and commitment within an intimate relationship. 
 The story could easily have been a dimestore romance complete with light bondage and hand-feeding, but Henry's thoughtful narration and flashbacks fashion rich characters and capture the painful process of growing up and loving someone. The movie stars Kate Winslet as Adele. Though I haven't seen the film, I couldn't help but imagine Winslet as a hybrid of Eternal Sunshine's quirky, candid Clementine and Revolutionary Road's heartwrenching April. 
 I'm not really a romance reader but chose this audiobook for the Bookworm Bitches 2015 Winter Challenge -- Book with a Heart on the Cover and Read Harder's 2015 Reading Challenge -- a Romance Novel.