First published 2010
Sylvie Serfer once had wild curls and strong opinions in law school. Now at fifty-seven, she maintains straight hair and a slim figure as Senator Richard Woodruff's polished wife. Her world shatters when Richard's extramarital affair explodes across national headlines. The scandal pulls in their two daughters. Lizzie, twenty-four, battles addiction recovery using her HALT mantra to stay grounded, but trouble keeps finding her. Diana works as an emergency room doctor with the perfect life her sister lacks: husband, young son, beautiful home. Yet Diana feels trapped in a marriage without love and finds herself drawn to temptation in the hospital corridors. The press conference ends, but the real reckoning begins. Each woman must examine who she has become and who she wants to be. Sylvie questions decades of self-transformation for political appearances. Diana weighs her picture-perfect life against her growing emptiness. Lizzie struggles to maintain her hard-won sobriety amid family chaos. Through heartbreak and unexpected moments of humor, the three women discover something they never had before: genuine connection with each other. After years of emotional distance, mother and daughters finally learn to find safety and understanding within their fractured family.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
401 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books
Content warnings: addiction, mental-illness