Description:

A funny and fiercely perceptive novel about a happily married woman and the little white lie that changed everything. For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets - from her widowed father and from her safe and respectable husband, Peter. But when an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen's life with a surprising proposition, she suddenly starts questioning everything she's ever expected from love. Elliot, it turns out, is in need of a pretend wife, just for the weekend, in order to fulfill his dying mother's last wish. But as Gwen finds herself drawn into Elliot's quirky, wonderful family - and uncovers a few secrets about her own - a pretend relationship just might turn out to be the most real thing she's ever known... ### From Publishers Weekly With still more to say about marriage, fidelity and the importance of being wittily earnest, Asher (*My Husband's Sweethearts*)—Julianna Baggott's adult fiction pseudonym—brings an abundance of warmth and wisdom to this tale of lost-and-found love. Married woman Gwen Merchant agrees to pretend to be the newlywed of former beau Elliott Hull to appease his dying mom. Gwen, smothering in a marriage to Peter, jumps at the chance for a redo at an abruptly ended college romance, and it's a slippery slope that Gwen slides down with passion and verve, falling in love with Elliott and becoming attached to his sister and her precocious kids and the imperious and uncannily perceptive matriarch, Vivian. But while weaving one faux relationship, Gwen unthreads the very real sadness in her own tattered family, including a widowed dad and a marriage that hides more than it confides. It's more than a little disappointing, if not surprising, that Asher inserts an improbably happy ending to push the sweet and funny Gwen into a trite epiphany. *(June)* Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### Review ''Asher ... brings an abundance of warmth and wisdom to this tale of lost-and-found love.'' --*Publishers Weekly* ''Bridget Asher writes with intelligence, humor, and real humanity about the issues of contemporary life.'' --Lisa Tucker, bestselling author of *Once Upon a Day* and *The Cure for Modern Life* ''*The Pretend Wife* is a sexy rumination about love and loss, truth and lies, marriage and friendship, with a daring, propulsive plot. I loved Gwen Merchant and her passel of hilarious and heartbreaking friends. And the dilemma: what to do when 'The One Who Got Away' comes back, after you married 'The One', is handled with a deft mixture comedy and complexity. I ate it up.'' --Lisa Gabriele, author of *The Almost Archer Sisters* and *Tempting Faith DiNapoli* ''Gwen is happily married until her dreamy ex asks if she'll act as his wife -- just for the weekend, to please his dying mom. A cut above chick-lit.'' --*People*, summer reading round-up ''Succeeds with the aid of humor, insight and an appealing heroine. If this one has not yet been optioned for film, it soon will be.'' --*Kirkus Reviews* ''Balances the lighter side of life with the sadder realities. Surprising, poignant moments pave the way for a . . . satisfyingly happy ending.'' --*Booklist*