Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2023
400 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a warmhearted and empowering new novel about love, family, friendship, secrets, and the power of a trip to change your life.
Thirty-four-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she's lived since college still looks like she just moved in. But she's got good friends, she's got her bike, and her bike club in Philadelphia. She's at peace with her plus-size body—at least, most of the time—and she's on track to marry her childhood sweetheart. Abby and Mark met at the weight-loss camp Abby's perpetually-dieting mother, Eileen, forced her daughter to attend. Fifteen years later, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, and finds out that he still adores her, it feels like fate.
Yet Abby can't escape the feeling that something isn't right…or the memories of one mind-blowing night spent with a man named Sebastian two years ago. So when Abby gets a last minute call to lead a group bike trip from New York City to Niagara Falls, she's happy to have time away from Mark, and a chance to make up her mind.
But on the first day, Abby is shocked when she sees a familiar face in the tour group—Sebastian, the one-night stand she never thought she'd see again. As a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away, Sebastian is far from Mr. Perfect, and Abby is determined to keep her distance, even if their chemistry is undeniable. To make things even worse, there's a last-minute addition to the trip—Abby's mother, Eileen, whom Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she's still trying to undo.
Over the next two weeks, strangers become confidantes, hidden truths come to light, and a teenage girl with a secret will unite all the riders in surprising ways—while all of Abby's certainties about herself, her mother, and the nature of love are challenged.
"Abby is a deeply likable character, and Weiner expertly handles the delicate balance between her current body neutrality and her deep-seated trauma...The other riders on the trip provide humor and poignancy...The romance between Abby and Sebastian is a slow burn that's incredibly fun to read, but Abby's journey to make her life her own is the real standout. A lovely, compulsively readable story about finding your path and believing in your own worth." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Weiner's charming latest follows a cyclist as she contemplates her life during an upstate New York bike tour...Abby's development feels genuine, as she learns to define herself on her own terms. This breezy outing goes down easy." —Publishers Weekly
This information about The Breakaway was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one books, including The Summer Place, That Summer, Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, In Her Shoes, Good in Bed, and a memoir in essays, Hungry Heart. She has appeared on many national television programs, including Today and Good Morning America, and her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, among other newspapers and magazines. Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
