Julia Claiborne Johnson
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“Julia Claiborne Johnson follows up her hilarious first book, Be Frank with Me, with this more serious—but still witty and charming—offering. This is a story that will stay with you for a long time.”  --Bookpage (full review here).

It’s 1938, and women seeking a “quickie divorce” head to Reno to while away the six weeks of residency the state of Nevada requires first to make things legal. A lucky few of the wealthier set do their time at the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need.

Twenty-four-year-old Ward dropped out of Yale when his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now his work  at the Flying Leap supports his parents back home in Tennessee.   Admired for his good looks and charm--"Cary Grant in cowboy boots"--Ward thinks he has the ranch's affluent clientele all figured out, but two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows.

​A novel about divorce, marriage and everything that comes in between ( money class, ambition and opportunity) Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious yet poignant of the way friendship can save us, love can destroy us, and the family we create can be stronger than the one we come from.

​“Two aspects of this novel are remarkable. One is the dialogue….The book’s other notable trait is its construction, which deftly crafts a story within a story…” -- Book Reporter  (full review  here).

"It’s hard to believe a cinematic version could be any more fun than the small-page antics of the aptly named Flying Leap..." -- New York Times (full review here).

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“Invites comparisons to Shakespeare’s madcap comedies.” –- Chattanooga Free Press/Chapter16.org (full review here).

*National bestseller * Starred review, PublishersWeekly * IndieNext Selection * Amazon Editor’s Pick, Best Literature and Fiction *  Barnes & Noble Book Club Selection, January 2021 * #1 Bestseller, Humorous Literature, Amazon
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​To hear me talk about Better Luck Next Time on the Top Shelf  podcast,  click here.

​If you’d rather watch me kibbitz with Stephanie, a bookseller at the Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, click here

To read a piece I wrote for NPR affiliate WBUR about my mother, a major  inspiration for my novel, click here​

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