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Published Jun 2010
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Tilly Farmer is thirty-two years old and has the perfect life she always dreamed of: married to her high school sweetheart, working as a guidance counselor in her hometown, trying for a baby. Perfect.
In fact, on the surface you might never know how tough things used to be. At seventeen, Tilly lost her mother to cancer, her father drowned his grief in alcohol, and she played parent to her two younger sisters more often than being a kid herself. Still Tilly never let tragedy overtake her belief that hard work and good cheer could solve any problem. Of course she's also spent a lifetime plastering a smile on her face and putting everyone else's problems ahead of her own.
But that relentless happiness has served her well—her sisters are grown and content, her dad is ten years sober, and she's helping her students achieve all their dreams while she and her husband, Tyler, start a family. A perfect life indeed.
Then one sweltering afternoon at the local fair, everything changes. Tilly wanders into the fortune teller's tent and is greeted by an old childhood friend, now a psychic, who offers her more than just a reading. "I'm giving you the gift of clarity," her friend says. "It's what I always thought you needed." And soon enough, Tilly starts seeing things: her father relapsing, staggering out of a bar with his car keys in hand; Tyler uprooting their happy, stable life, a packed U-Haul in their driveway; and even more disturbing, these visions start coming true. Suddenly Tilly's perfect life, so meticulously mapped out, seems to be crumbling around her. And she's not sure what's more frightening: that she's begun to see the future or what the future holds ...
As Tilly furiously races to keep up with—and hopefully change—her destiny, she faces the question: Which is the life she wants? The one she's carefully nursed for decades, or the one she never considered possible?
"[A]n aching, honest look into the death and rebirth of relationships....a wise, absorbing narrative." – Publishers Weekly
"Scotch creates eminently relatable characters, with a particularly excellent understanding of the way sisters interact, and has the ability to craft scenes of real emotional weight." – Booklist
"Well-told ... a good choice for fans of women's fiction and book clubs. It's fast-paced and feels light yet still packs a satisfying emotional punch." – Library Journal
"Pleasant, predictable beach-bag fare from Scotch " - Kirkus Reviews
This information about The One That I Want was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Allison Winn Scotch graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Honors History and Concentration in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Time of My Life and The One That I Want. She lives in New York with her family.
Follow Allison at http://www.allisonwinn.com/
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