Next Best Thing — Zelmer Wilson

Miller Hoffman, the bright but troubled young man from Zelmer Wilson's debut novel, In the Middle, returns and learns, the hard way, that getting over losing Bobbie Lamont will be harder than he thought. He arrives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, his hometown until he was thirteen years old, ready to start his freshmen year at the University of Arkansas and leave his past behind him. He soon realizes that he made a mistake in coming back, that he is still caught in his father's shadow. Forced to either stay or leave, he leaves Arkansas again and moves to Alabama. He transfers to Birmingham City University, where he is reunited with an old friend, Sartre. He also makes a new rival; a fellow student named William Van Norton and meets the charming Michelle Connor. He will learn many things over the next three years, not all of them from his professors. He will learn that when you can't find love, sex is the next best thing.