Middle-aged single mom and school librarian Amy is shocked to find the husband she never divorced back in her small town after he ditched her and their two children three years ago. He's now ready to try and be a father again to their teens, and is ready to give his credit card and time so Amy can go "have a break."

What follows is a typical tale of a white woman finding herself after martyring her life to motherhood and refusing to make her ridiculous husband pay his share with the help of rich friends, privilege, and circumstance.

Readers must read a long time before the find out what made Amy's husband run off to China CW

Spoiler

Miscarriage)

and I was just so utterly irritated with Amy's noble refusal to take him to task especially since her financial troubles are noted (Amy describes being on food stamps). The financial woes are sort of also solved by Amy immediately going from a stay at home mom to finding a miracle job as a librarian at her kids' posh private school. Amy does have an MLS but I found this to be a bit of a leap.

Also as a library worker and a parent, I was interested to see the struggle Amy has with her own daughter being a reluctant reader, and I did enjoy reading the journal entries Cori wrote to her mother to be the most compelling parts of the story.

There is also a romance subplot between Amy and the "hot biracial librarian" she meets at the conference, the "librarian who Dangerous Minds his school in the Bronx" and it all kind of felt a bit not great to me, said as a white reviewer.

I appreciate what this book was trying to do, but I don't feel like it pulled it off. It was very readable and I'm sure many white, middle class women will enjoy it.