Any Way The Wind Blows E Lynn Harris

Any Way The Wind Blows by E. Lynn Harris — What It Actually Is and Who It's For

Any Way The Wind Blows is a 2007 novel by E. Lynn Harris, published as her third main series book in the Nicole Ward universe. It follows Nicole, a successful advertising executive and single mother, as she navigates a complicated romantic relationship with a man who has significant secrets of his own. The book doesn't reinvent anything in the genre. It does exactly what Harris had been doing for two decades before that — drama, family tension, romance complications, and the occasional betrayal that keeps readers turning pages. I've read Harris back when her books were exclusively in mass-market paperback at drugstores and supermarket checkouts, and this one sits right in the middle of her catalog. Not her best work, not her worst. If you went into it expecting some radical shift in style or substance, you'll be disappointed. It reads like a standard Nicole Ward installment.

Any Way The Wind Blows E Lynn Harris

The core conflict revolves around Nicole falling for a man named Julian, who appears to be everything she wants — successful, charming, family-oriented — but turns out to be entangled in situations that challenge her trust completely. Harris builds the tension slowly, which works better than most of her faster-paced entries. The pacing gives you room to actually care about the characters before the drama escalates, which is something she didn't always manage. The book also deals with Nicole's role as a mother to her son, Zane, and her relationship with her ex-husband. These threads aren't glossed over. They occupy real narrative space. Some readers find that the mother-son dynamic slows the romantic plot down, but I think it's what separates this from her more disposable entries. The stakes feel slightly more grounded because Nicole has an actual child depending on her making reasonable decisions.

What Works and What Doesn't in This Novel

Harris's dialogue remains the strongest element throughout. Her characters sound like people who would actually talk to each other at a family gathering or a bar. The conversations carry subtext, and the arguments feel earned rather than contrived. That's not automatic in this genre. A lot of authors in this space rely on melodramatic declarations instead of actual human speech. Harris mostly avoids that trap here. The secondary characters — Nicole's sister, her friends, her mother — all get enough development to function as a support system rather than pure plot devices. I noticed this on my first read and confirmed it on a second pass. Harris isn't just using them to deliver exposition. They have their own motivations that occasionally intersect with Nicole's problems in unexpected ways. Where the book stumbles is in the resolution. Harris tends to tie things up with a level of neatness that borders on unrealistic. By the final chapters, several plot threads converge in ways that feel convenient rather than inevitable. If you're reading for literary fiction, this will bug you. If you're reading for comfortable genre entertainment, it's probably fine. You need to know what you're getting into before you start.

Where This Book Fits in Harris's Career

Any Way The Wind Blows came out late in Harris's career, two years before her death in 2009. By that point, she had already established the Nicole Ward universe across multiple books and was well past the point of needing to prove herself. That shows in the writing — there's less ambition here than in her earlier works like Neither the Fashionably Single nor the Easily Caught or If There Be Horns of Glory. Those books took more creative risks. This one plays it safer. For new readers wondering where to start, this isn't the best entry point. The Nicole Ward series was serialized for years, and several references assume you've been following along since the beginning. The character dynamics make more sense if you've read the earlier books, particularly The Secret Lives of Church Ladies which introduced Nicole. If you just pick this up cold, you'll understand the plot but miss a lot of the emotional weight behind certain relationship dynamics.

Practical Notes for Readers

The book is available in paperback, hardcover, audiobook, and digital formats. The audiobook version is narrated by Barbara Caruso, who also narrated many of Harris's other titles. Her performance is consistent with what you'd expect from someone who's read these books multiple times — competent but not particularly distinctive. If you're listening on a commute, it's fine. If you're looking for an immersive drama experience, the text version is worth the extra effort. Content-wise, Harris's books contain mature themes including infidelity, same-sex attraction, family conflict, and explicit romantic scenes. If any of that is a concern for you, the content warnings are accurate. The book isn't gratuitous about it, but it doesn't shy away either. It's aimed squarely at adult readers who want that combination of romance and conflict. The runtime is roughly 400 pages in paperback, which puts it at about eight to ten hours of reading time depending on your pace. For comparison, it's slightly shorter than the average Harris novel from the 2000s, which typically ran 450 to 500 pages. That shorter length might actually work in its favor — the book is tighter than some of her longer entries, and there are fewer filler chapters between the dramatic peaks.

Bottom Line

Any Way The Wind Blows is a solid mid-career E. Lynn Harris novel. It won't change the genre. It won't win literary awards. But it does what it sets out to do competently, with better character development than some of her other works and a pace that gives the romance plot room to breathe. If you're already reading Harris, it's worth adding to your list. If you're choosing between this and her other titles, I'd suggest starting earlier in the series instead and circling back to this one once you know the characters.