The One That Got Away
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
In this irresistible debut novel, a freak accident allows a wife and mother to explore the alluring road not taken.
Meet Abbey Lahey . . .
Overworked mom. Underappreciated publicist. Frazzled wife of an out-of-work landscaper. A woman desperately in need of a vacation from life -- and who is about to get one, thanks to an unexpected tumble down a Nordstrom escalator.
Meet Abbey van Holt . . .
The woman whose life Abbey suddenly finds herself inhabiting when she wakes up. Married to handsome congressional candidate Alex van Holt. Living in a lavish penthouse. Wearing ball gowns and being feted by the creme of Philadelphia society. Luxuriating in the kind of fourteen-karat lifestyle she's only read about in the pages of Town & Country.
The woman Abbey might have been . . . if she had said yes to a date with Alex van Holt all those years ago.
In the tradition of the romantic comedy Sliding Doors and Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World, Leigh Himes's irresistible debut novel tells the funny and touching story of an ordinary woman offered an extraordinary opportunity to reboot her life, explore the road not taken, and ultimately, find her true self -- whoever that may be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Himes's debut novel begins with harried working wife and mother Abbey, who hits her heads and loses consciousness while wishing for a different life. The fall happens as Abbey returns a too-expensive red Marc Jacobs bag to a Nordstroms in Philadelphia, and she imagines herself on the road not taken, the wife of a wealthy, handsome man who once asked her out. This dream husband is Alex, a Philadelphia blue blood running for Congress, whereas her real husband is Jimmy, whose business failures she resents. In the dream, Abbey, sans "droopy skin or love handles" and now with breast implants, tries to get up to speed and help her husband's campaign and wonders what happened to her ambition and depth, and why she would have ceded control of her family to her mother-in-law. Himes's portrait of an outsider trying to fit into a narrow new role works well; Abbey is reminiscent of the snarky Jill Weber character on Bravo's Odd Mom Out. Less successful is the novel's deliberate pacing and the ease with which Abbey betrays her original marriage vows.
