Jodi Culliney’s Cutting Losses is a contemporary small-town romance about two people who return to South Dakota carrying the wreckage of old choices. Josh is a surgeon whose life in New York falls apart after a broken engagement, professional failure, and a painful betrayal. Effie is newly separated, bruised by a bad marriage, and trying to rebuild herself in a town that feels both familiar and strange. When their lives cross again in Beverley, the story becomes less about a neat second chance and more about whether two wounded people can be honest enough to choose something better.

What I liked most is that Culliney lets the romance grow out of ordinary spaces. A library. An auto shop. A porch. A diner. A street dance under fairy lights. The setting gives the book warmth, but it never feels like simple decoration. This is a romance deeply tied to place, where South Dakota is not just scenery but part of the emotional weather of the characters. Josh and Effie both have to figure out what “home” means, and I appreciated that the answer is not handed to them too easily. The writing is candid and often funny, especially through Effie’s sharp inner voice, but it also makes room for grief, shame, family history, and the strange embarrassment of starting over as an adult.

I also found the author’s choice to move between several points of view interesting. Josh and Effie carry the heart of the book, but voices like Ruth, Lana, Henry, and Diadema widen the story and make the town feel lived in. Sometimes that broad cast slows the pace, especially when I wanted to stay close to the central romance, but it also gives the book a more generous shape. This is not just a love story between two people. It’s a story about the lies people tell to survive, the truths they avoid because they are afraid, and the quiet courage it takes to stop performing a life that no longer fits.

I would recommend Cutting Losses to readers who enjoy small-town contemporary romance with emotional baggage, family complications, and characters who are old enough to have real regrets. It will especially appeal to readers who like their love stories tender but messy, with humor in the middle of heartbreak and a strong sense of community around the central couple. If you like romance that treats redemption as something earned one honest conversation at a time, this book is worth picking up.

Pages: 344 | ASIN: B0DNZBG88T