Skipping a Beat
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
He died for four minutes—and came back willing to give away everything they spent a lifetime building. Now his wife must choose between the glittering life she fought for and the stranger her husband has become.
Julia and Michael appeared to have beaten the odds. Raised in the hardscrabble hills of West Virginia, the high school sweethearts built a glittering life in Washington, D.C.—a mansion, elite social circles, and staggering wealth after Michael sells his beverage company for $70 million. Julia has become one of the city’s most sought-after party planners, orchestrating lavish events with the precision and drama of the operas she adores.
Then Michael collapses.
For four minutes and eight seconds after his heart stops, he is gone. When a portable defibrillator finally revives him, Julia expects gratitude, relief, a return to normal. Instead, the man who wakes up is someone she barely recognizes.
Michael no longer cares about money, status, or the empire he built. He wants to give everything away and start over. To Julia, his transformation feels less like a miracle than a betrayal—especially since their marriage had already begun unraveling long before his brush with death.
Now, with her carefully constructed world hanging in the balance, Julia has three weeks to decide: leave the husband she no longer understands, or risk everything for a second chance at a very different kind of life—one that may be poorer in every material way, but richer in all the ways that matter
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dead in the first sentence of Pekkanen's strained second novel (after The Opposite of Me), Michael Dunhill, a D.C. hotshot and the millionaire husband of narrator Julia, comes to after a few flat-lined minutes, ready for a change. What follows is a disjointed exploration of his wife's coming to terms with this development and a bulky series of flashbacks. Michael's near-death resolution involves restoring his marriage and donating his wealth to charity, much to the displeasure of Julia, who has become overinvested in their wealthy lifestyle. Michael spends most of the book radiating the grating beneficence of a religious charismatic while Julia moves from understandable annoyance to love and regret all without much convincing connection. Pekkanen does sometimes break through the surface to offer occasional insight into married life or the effects of wealth and power, but much page space is consumed with familiar frivolities like designer clothes, chocolate binges, and fruity drinks shared with saucy friends. It doesn't achieve the substance it strives for, but readers seeking yet another quippy diversion won't be disappointed.