Perhaps as a result of her years as a TV host, Jemma Forte (Me and Miss M) has a knack for writing quirky dialogue and believably awkward scenarios. As her new novel, If You're Not the One, opens, 38-year-old Jennifer is attempting to seduce her husband, Max, but her efforts go sadly awry. Humiliated, Jen runs out of the house, only to get hit by a car.
As Jen's body lies in a coma, Jen's mind takes a long journey. She reflects back on the three serious loves she had before Max, and what her life would be like today if she'd stayed with one of them. Would she and the hot, pot-smoking Aidan be living in an Australian surfer's paradise? Would her billionaire ex-boyfriend Tim, inventor of a popular social media site, have lavished her with everything she wanted? Or could sweet but sappy Steve the plumber, the boyfriend she dumped for Max, have been The One?
Anyone who's ever wondered what could have been if they'd settled down with someone else will enjoy If You're Not the One. With its unusual structure (told in alternating flashbacks from 1994 until the day before the accident), and its very unexpected ending, If You're Not the One is not run-of-the-mill chick lit. Using a lot of humor, and a few surprisingly deep moments, Forte analyzes the nature of happiness, the exhaustion of parenting, the struggle of a midlife crisis and the tricky balance of love and friendship. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm