Chicklit 2.0

Let me introduce you to Gabby. She's 43 years old, married to the love of her life, and the mom of two lovely teenage daughters. Her life is wonderful. Yes, sometimes she feels a bit dowdy, and middle aged, but what can you do? That's life.

Hooked on a feeling

Then she meets gorgeous looking Matt on a girls' night out. And even though she loves her husband and she isn't going to do anything, they start exchanging emails. And Gabby starts to yearn for those emails. Reading them over and over again. Looking for hidden meanings. She wakes up in the middle of the night to check her email. And she gets this wonderful rush when there's a new email from Him.

It's almost like an addiction. Suddenly she feels sexy and hot, and like an attractive woman again. She gets hooked on a feeling. And she can't give it up.

If you play with fire, you get burned

Yes, Gabby is playing with fire.
And you know what they say about playing with fire.
You'll get burned.

And sure enough, that's what happens with Gabby. All that pent up excitement and desire culminate in a frantic love making session which leaves her feeling empty, guilty and bereft. Suddenly all those wonderful feelings have died like grass upon the lawn.

Unfortunately, Matt has left her a present making her slip-up visible to the world.

Suddenly Gabby's life isn't so wonderful anymore. Instead of being an affluent housewife with a great and caring husband, she's a struggling single mom.

A cautionary tale

Jane Green's book Tempting Fate is a cautionary tale. A word of warning for all those women who secretly yearn for a life like you see in romantic comedies. The grass may seem greener on the other side, but once you get there, you see it's actually very shitty.

Here's what Gabby's friend Claire says to her:

'No one thinks they're going to have an affair. Everyone starts by thinking it's just a fun flirtation, or a new friendship, that they'll never let anything happen. So they pretend to be friends, even though the only thing these two people have in common is a mutual lust, which eventually has to ignite. They have an affair, and mitigate it by deciding that it isn't just an affair, that this is their soulmate.

They aren't supposed to be married to the lovely, stable lawyer in boring old Connecticut; instead they are meant to be living with the dangerous, unstable, inappropriately young surfer. They blow up their marriages, only for them to discover that a year down the line they have nothing in common. Except for the lust, which has now disappeared.'

Chicklit 2.0

Tempting Fate is like chicklit 2.0! First generation chicklit is all about newbie moms, struggling to keep it together. It's about sleepless nights, sore nipples, and midnight feedings.

But chicklit 2.0 gives  us a look at what happens next. Once the kids are older, and these women are freed from their constant demands they reinvent themselves!

'In their thirties, all her friends wore the same dull uniforms, but suddenly, in their forties, these same women are breaking free of their self-imposed cocoons, eschewing the dull blanket of grinding motherhood and emerging in a flurry of bright chiffons and silks.

And now that their children nog longer needed babysitters they are tripping out on girls' nights out in impossibly high heels, their hair silky and blown-out wanting to be seen.'

I think that this is one of Jane Green's better books. I think her tale of caution is relatable and wise!

Practical info

Tempting Fate is available on Kindle for $10,60.