A hilarious and emotionally charged novel about a couple who embark on an open marriage-what could possibly go wrong?
Lucy and Owen, ambitious, thoroughly-therapized New Yorkers, have taken the plunge, trading in their crazy life in a cramped apartment for Beekman, a bucolic Hudson Valley exurb. They've got a two hundred year-old house, an autistic son obsessed with the Titanic whose verbal ticks often sound like a broken record, and 17 chickens, at last count. It's the kind of paradise where stay-at-home moms team up to cook the school's "hot lunch," dads grill grass-fed burgers, and, as Lucy observes, "chopping kale has become a certain kind of American housewife's version of chopping wood."
When friends at a wine-soaked dinner party reveal they've made their marriage open, sensible Lucy balks. There's a part of her, though-the part that worries she's become too comfortable being invisible-that's intrigued. Why not try a short marital experiment? Six months, clear ground rules, zero questions asked. When an affair with a man in the city begins to seem more enticing than the happily-ever-after she's known for the past nine years, she must decide what truly makes her happy-"real life," or the experiment?"
Deftly mixing humor and pathos, Sarah Dunn's Secrets to Happiness delivers an entertaining story of professional women living the city life. It has been likened to a hybrid of Candace Bushnell, Edith Wharton, and Jane Austen, and Kirkus Reviews calls it a "smart chick-lit tale with dark undertones." Recently divorced Holly is intelligent and spunky-and her priceless ruminations on love, life, and happiness are not to be missed.
Deftly mixing humor and pathos, Sarah Dunn's Secrets to Happiness delivers an entertaining story of professional women living the city life. It has been likened to a hybrid of Candace Bushnell, Edith Wharton, and Jane Austen, and Kirkus Reviews calls it a "smart chick-lit tale with dark undertones." Recently divorced Holly is intelligent and spunky—and her priceless ruminations on love, life, and happiness are not to be missed.
Alison has it all. She has an oh-so trendy job as a newspaper columnist writing about the single life. Her live-in boyfriend, Tom, is terrific. They have lots of good friends who come over for dinner parties. At one of these parties, Alison sends Tom out for some mustard and he never comes back. Not only is Alison appalled that he dumped her while they had company, but she is amazed that he thought so little of their relationship. When bad luck hits, it hits hard. Soon, Alison is unemployed. Her ex-boss and ex-fling Henry is dating her archenemy, the witless daily columnist of the other local paper. Then Tom returns, with the mustard. Seriously bad timing on Tom's part.
