The One That Got Away b y Leigh Himes

The One That Got Away: A Novel 

May 31, 2016 by Leigh Himes

Book 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 crème 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."

I started reading this book thinking that I wasn’t going to like it.   The synopsis made this book sound so familiar.  I felt as if it was a story that was written one too many times.  I was wrong. 

The author created a story that, frankly to use a trite and tired expression, I just couldn’t put down.  This meant that I finished this in one day. (Make sure if you start reading this that you have the time to finish it! It is a fast read for all that it is almost 400 pages) I just had to see how this odd week in the life Abbey (and Alex) was going to play out, how she would get her old life back…IF she wanted her old life back.

While this is not anything more that light entertainment, it was a fun story and it really did have a message in it, that what you want may not always be what you need.

This was a fun book with humor and hope.  It did have some problems with unnecessary characters and story-lines that should have been further explored, but all in all I was happy I took the time to finish this book.