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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).
"“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
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
