First published 2005
Sara Turner stands in her Hadley Farms kitchen, divorced mother turned television personality, planning her wedding to a new fiancé while organizing sex toy parties for the local Newcomer's Club. Her best friend Kate Steele runs a thriving dermatology practice on Park Avenue, treating Manhattan's elite while conducting an affair with a married real estate tycoon who owns his own jet. Their neighbor Berni Davis has abandoned her Hollywood talent agency career to raise twins, swapping A-list parties for suburban motherhood. The three women face midlife transitions that bring unexpected complications. Sara's ex-husband returns from Patagonia just as her fiancé's seductive former wife launches a campaign to win him back. A soap opera heartthrob enters the picture, creating romantic chaos. Kate discovers her wealthy lover harbors serious secrets that threaten their relationship. Berni questions whether domestic life can satisfy her after years of high-powered entertainment industry success. Through baby showers featuring male strippers and experimental beauty treatments, the friends support each other's choices. The story explores how women reinvent themselves at forty-one, finding new possibilities when society expects them to settle for less.
Genres: contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century, contemporary-romance
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, friends-to-lovers, second-chance
Setting: Hadley Farms, Manhattan, Park Avenue, Patagonia
Period: Midlife
304 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books