Verdict: 5 Stars

Everyone is looking for the next new thing. A new cell phone every year, leasing a new car every two years, and especially… new wives. When Leslie looks around one day and figures out that all of the men in their circle of Atlanta friends have traded in and traded up for ditzy, tanned, younger bimbos, she realizes that she’s not only the last of the “original” wives…she might be next. After also figuring out that her husband is doing a little better financially than he’d told her, Les decides she’s not taking this lying down. She plans a trip back to her childhood home of Charleston and looks after herself for a while.

Possibly the worst thing a book can be, though, is predictable. When I read the book blurb, I thought I had this all figured out: a good revenge plot in which Leslie comes away with the money, ditches the ex-husband, and finds a hot new (appreciative) guy in the process, preferably one who is muscular and ten years her junior.

Wrong. One thing that author Dorothea Benton Frank does really well is surprise her readers. The book is funny, poignant, introspective, but not even close to predictable.