“A beautiful, grownup love story for people who live in the real world.”
—Meredith Goldstein, Boston Globe Love Letters columnist and author of Things That Grow
Engineering a Love Story
It's the year 2000—dot-coms, Bush v. Gore, and sky-high San Francisco rents. But while the country swoons with irrational exuberance, Chelsea Lefevre's life is collapsing faster than a tech bubble.
She'd had everything she thought she was supposed to want: a house on Boston's North Shore, exquisite wedding china, a Waspy mother-in-law. A steady, safe marriage. But after a mortifying slip-up, Chelsea finds herself heading into the 21st century alone. Her lifeboat? A new job advising tech execs, taken to escape the misogyny she endured as a software engineer—only to discover she has a surprising knack for spotting the next hot thing.
In this heady new world, Chelsea meets Seth Murphy, a magnetic sales executive at one of the country’s hottest startups. Professional boundaries make Seth off-limits, but Chelsea is tired of steady and safe. What starts as a casual fling soon spirals into a secret and intense affair, jeopardizing Chelsea’s career, newfound independence—and heart.
But as the bubble bursts, Chelsea will have to decode the difference between good enough and too good to be true, and reckon with how much a smart woman can risk when she’s the only female in the room.
Warm and witty, Engineering a Love Story is about growing up after a decade of adulthood and refusing to settle for a life that's less than the one you're capable of living.
Coming October 6, 2026
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Praise for Engineering a Love Story
“Engineering a Love Story is a smart, fast-paced romance set behind the scenes of the 2000s tech world. Start-up booms and bubbles raise the stakes at work for Chelsea, but after blowing up her safe, good-on-paper marriage, that risk is part of the appeal. When a forbidden industry tryst develops into something more, Chelsea finds herself blurring lines and taking chances, searching for a part of herself she shut down long ago. Sexy, fun, and full of complications, Engineering a Love Story captures the heady momentum and casino atmosphere of early tech, but it’s the sharp, well-drawn characters that give it real life. Kathleen Reidy crafts a clever love story you can’t look away from, asking real questions about what it means to live fully and lean into the unknown.”—Emily Everett, author of Reese’s Book Club pick All That Life Can Afford
“Kathleen Reidy’s Engineering A Love Story offers a fascinating window into the 90s tech world—not so long ago, and yet worlds away. In Chelsea Lefevre we find a smart, analytical, savvy woman caught in what is still very much a man’s world. She’s played it safe; now she wants to play fast and loose. Courting disaster and chasing love, Chelsea has to figure out what she really wants and the chances she’s willing to take to get it. As heady and fast as a dot com wave!”—Juliette Fay, bestselling author of The Harvey Girls and The Half of It
“In Reidy’s novel, a young professional facing major upheaval finds her life further complicated when she falls for a hotshot executive...a layered, nuanced, and ultimately riveting story of one woman’s attempt to find herself.”—Kirkus Reviews
“With remarkable specificity and emotional honesty, Kathleen Reidy transports readers back to the year 2000, when the future felt both exhilarating and uncertain. Fresh off a separation, Chelsea Lefevre spends her days advising tech executives on the next big thing, but she's far less certain about what's next for herself. Engineering a Love Story is both a vivid time capsule and a perceptive story about ambition, love, and a woman's search for the life she truly wants.”—Karen Winn, author of The Society and Our Little World
“Engineering A Love Story is a thrilling ride as we witness a woman courageous and ambitious enough to risk the comfortable safety of what she knows for the possible payoff of love and independence. It’s a wonderfully gratifying story of one woman who dares to be true to herself.”—Jessica Anya Blau, author of Shopgirls and Mary Jane
“There's a time in your life when everything happens all at once, and that's exactly what is going on in this novel. Chelsea takes us on her journey, the good, the bad, and the glorious, and she does so with honesty, sensitivity and grace. Most amazingly, she keeps her head up through it all, because that's what girls did…and still do.”—Simi Monheit, author of The Goldie Standard
“Ah, the preoccupations of a post-Y2K, overthinking, twentysomething woman: a male-dominated tech job, a once-hopeful marriage gone south, and an ever-thinning bank account. Reidy weaves in a furtive romance that awakens the overworked protagonist’s desire—while threatening to undo all she’s worked for. She invites you to fall into the coming-of-age nostalgia of the year 2000, and to remember that gritty ambition and romantic desperation with a little cringe and a lot of fondness. I finished it with a wistful smile.”—Jennifer Safrey, author of After Happily Ever: An Epic Novel of Midlife Rebellion
Kathleen Reidy is a writer and public librarian based in the Boston area. She holds a master’s degree in library science and spent more than a decade in the tech industry. Her short fiction has been published by Puddingstone Press and WayWords. She lives with her husband, daughters, and fluffy best friend. Engineering a Love Story is her first novel.