Ratings5
Average rating3.4
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a warmhearted and empowering new novel about love, family, friendship, secrets, and the power of a trip to change your life. Thirty-four-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she's lived since college still looks like she just moved in. But she's got good friends, she's got her bike, and her bike club in Philadelphia. She's at peace with her plus-size body--at least, most of the time--and she's on track to marry her childhood sweetheart. Abby and Mark met at the weight-loss camp Abby's perpetually-dieting mother, Eileen, forced her daughter to attend. Fifteen years later, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, and finds out that he still adores her, it feels like fate. Yet Abby can't escape the feeling that something isn't right...or the memories of one mind-blowing night spent with a man named Sebastian two years ago. So when Abby gets a last minute call to lead a group bike trip from New York City to Niagara Falls, she's happy to have time away from Mark, and a chance to make up her mind. But on the first day, Abby is shocked when she sees a familiar face in the tour group--Sebastian, the one-night stand she never thought she'd see again. As a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away, Sebastian is far from Mr. Perfect, and Abby is determined to keep her distance, even if their chemistry is undeniable. To make things even worse, there's a last-minute addition to the trip--Abby's mother, Eileen, whom Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she's still trying to undo. Over the next two weeks, strangers become confidantes, hidden truths come to light, and a teenage girl with a secret will unite all the riders in surprising ways--while all of Abby's certainties about herself, her mother, and the nature of love are challenged.
Reviews with the most likes.
Actually cute, with dignity of a normal sized main character who doesn't lose weight to redeem herself of anything, thank the lord.
4.5 stars. One of the best Weiner novels in at least ten years (and I've read them all). She ditches the suspense-lite plots that were shoehorned into the past few releases, and the result is a page-turning, character-based story with plus-sized (and fine with it) heroine, interesting family dynamics and several potential love interests. Lots of humor, sex, and emotionally rich moments. And it all takes place on a two-week bike tour of my home state of New York!
Weiner has become more forgiving over the years; there's more to the MC's stereotypical overbearing Jewish mother than meets the eye, and the mother/daughter relationship evolves as they both try to understand each other's point of view. One thing Weiner has not mellowed out on is her feminism; the realities of living in a post-Roe nation are played out in a very personal way (Perhaps having a full-page quote from the Seneca Falls Convention on women's rights is a little much though).
Docked half a star for Weiner's decision to have several chapters narrated by secondary characters who are part of the cycling tour. I can understand narratively why she did this, but it sacrifices pages that might have better served as interactions between the MC and LI, or examples of the MC's own personal growth.
DNF. I should have NF'ed earlier, but I was on a long drive and needed a book. Too rote and predictable. There are important topics here that deserve more recognition, but this book didn't cut it for me.