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Title details for The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner - Available

The Breakaway

A Novel

by Jennifer Weiner
Nikki Blonsky
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a warmhearted and empowering new novel about love, family, friendship, secrets, and a life-changing journey.
Thirty-three-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's just moved in. But she's got good friends, her bike, and her bicycling 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 Mark Medoff, her childhood sweetheart, a man she met at the weight-loss camp that her perpetually dieting mother forced her to attend. Fifteen years after her final summer at Camp Golden Hills, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, it feels like the happy ending she's always wanted.

Yet Abby can't escape the feeling that something isn't right...or the memories of one thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years previously. When Abby gets a last-minute invitation to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, she's happy to have time away from Mark, a chance to reflect and make up her mind.

But things get complicated fast. First, Abby spots a familiar face in the group—Sebastian, the one-night stand she thought she'd never see again. Sebastian is a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away. In spite of their undeniable chemistry, Abby is determined to keep her distance. Then there's a surprise last-minute addition to the trip: her mother, Eileen, the woman Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she's still trying to undo.

Over two weeks and more than seven hundred miles, strangers become friends, hidden truths come to light, a teenage girl with a secret unites the riders in unexpected ways...and Abby is forced to reconsider everything she believes about herself, her mother, and the nature of love.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 29, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797163659
      • File size: 389149 KB
      • Duration: 13:30:43

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 26, 2023
      Weiner’s charming latest (after The Summer Place) follows a cyclist as she contemplates her life during an upstate New York bike tour. Abby Stern, 33, began cycling years ago to fight negative feelings about her weight, which had been exacerbated by her mother, Eileen, who made Abby attend a “fat camp” when she was a teen. Now, she bikes to forget her ambivalence about her boyfriend, Mark. Eileen joins Abby on the trip, as does Sebastian, a man she once hooked up with. Along the way, Abby deals with Eileen’s judgment and is still drawn to the charismatic Sebastian, though he was recently outed on TikTok for being a player. Still, he seems to genuinely like Abby, and the feeling is mutual. Abby and Sebastian’s lively banter reels the reader in, as do the fine-grained details from the trail (the rattling Walkway Over the Hudson, the “scrubby backyards,” and an honest depiction of touring bike frames: “They weren’t pretty, but they got the job done”). Abby’s development feels genuine, as she learns to define herself on her own terms. This breezy outing goes down easy. Agent: Celeste Fine, Elizabeth Pratt, and Emily Sweet, Park Fine.

    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Abby Stern learned to ride a bike at age six and discovered a newfound freedom. That feeling carried her from a difficult adolescence to eventual acceptance, learning to love her plus-size self despite others' judgment. Now in her thirties, Abby still craves independence. When things are about to get serious with her safe, dependable boyfriend, she seizes one last chance for freedom, leading a cycling trip from New York City to Niagara Falls. When one member of her group turns out to be Sebastian, her one and only one-night stand, Abby is forced to choose between her head and her heart. Weiner (The Summer Place) proffers a relationship fiction that is both playful and poignant. Her conversational, character-driven writing seamlessly shifts from humorous to heartrending and back again. Unfortunately, however, primary narrator Nikki Blonsky, as Abby, falls short on delivering dramatic flair, allowing the emotive asides from additional narrators Santino Fontana, Jenni Barber, Soneela Nankani, and Joy Osmanski to steal the show. VERDICT Will appeal to listeners seeking a moving novel about building relationships, body positivity, and being true to oneself. Recommended for fans of Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, and Jo Wilde.--Lauren Hackert

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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