You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrique

I read a review that noted this is the author's first book written for adults, and that makes a lot of sense, it has a Young Adult feel to it both in content and tone. Pragmatic, serious Sadie and flighty, creative Alice have been best friends since high school—really one another’s only friends—but now that they are through with college and living on opposite ends of California, there has been some drift. Alice is appearing in a play and Sadie cannot make it work in her schedule, so she sends her mom instead. Celine is a professor of women’s and gender studies at UC Berkeley, whose landmark treatise on sex and identity made her notorious, but she’s struggling to write her new book in a post-second-wave feminist world. So, when Sadie begs her to attend Alice’s play, she relents, if only to escape writer’s block. But in a turn of perplexing events, Celine becomes entranced by Alice’s performance and realizes that her daughter’s once lanky, slightly annoying best friend is now an irresistible young woman. And so the trouble begins. This is another take on one of your parents sleeping with your best friend and where does that leave you dilemmas. Nowhere good is the usual answer, followed by "what were they thinking" and all those questions and more are answered in this enjoyable to read book.