From Goodreads: Mona Berman is an expert at Happily Ever After – after all, she’s a best-selling Romance writer and happy endings are what she does best. So when her husband of twenty years leaves her for somebody 15 years younger, 30 pounds lighter, and French, she’s got a lot of adjusting to do, both personally and professionally. Lucky for her she’s got three savvy teen daughters, a few good friends, and Ben, the world’s sexiest plumber, to help her along the way. First she decides that her next book will be the anti-romance – her heroine finds the best part of her life AFTER getting dumped. Next her daughters tell her she needs to start practice dating, and summer at the Jersey shore is the perfect place for that. She’s also juggling her soon-to-be-ex, a loony aunt, and a match-making neighbor, while Ben is sending her romance-driven imagination into overdrive. Can Mona’s life imitate art? Can she write her own happy ending?

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This is a really cute, witty tale about Mona Berman finding life after being cast aside by her husband of twenty years.  I enjoy a strong female lead, and Ernst does not disappoint in her character, Mona, whose quirky ways and strong sense of self worth make her triumph over her disastrous break up.  I loved that Mona didn’t stop living, but instead began, dating, writing a new type of novel, and ultimately finding herself throughout the course of the story, and I highly enjoyed it.

I absolutely adored that Mona was a writer.  I’m always interested in books where the main character writes, I think mainly because the author is describing their own job, and it just intrigues me.  Ernst is a writer writing a writer, as it were, and I really get a kick out of authors that do this, especially when they do it well, as Ernst does. 

I loved the writing style as well.  It reads very smoothly, almost like a conversation with a friend instead of a novel.  Ernst doesn’t just tell a story, but she connects with her readers and shows the story as well, making it an overall great read that I highly recommend.  Funny and engaging, Ernst has produced a gem of a story.  Four stars.

I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.