Definitely Better Now

Definitely Better NowA touching and deeply funny debut about starting over sober only to discover life's biggest messes are still waiting right where you left them. The very last person anyone should worry about is Emma. Yes, hi, she's an alcoholic. But she's officially been sober for one entire year. That's twelve months of better health. Fifty two whole weeks of focusing on nothing but her nine to five office job, group meetings, and avoiding the kind of bad decisions

A touching and deeply funny debut about starting over sober only to discover life's biggest messes are still waiting right where you left them.

The very last person anyone should worry about is Emma. Yes, hi, she's an alcoholic. But she's officially been sober for one entire year. That's twelve months of better health. Fifty-two whole weeks of focusing on nothing but her nine-to-five office job, group meetings, and avoiding the kind of bad decisions that previously left her awash in shame and regret. It's also been 365 days of not dating. And with her new dating profile, Emma, 26, of New York is ready to put herself back out there.

Except--was dating always this complicated? And did Emma's mother really have to choose now to move in with her new boyfriend? Being assigned to plan her office's holiday party feels like icing on the suddenly very overwhelming cake until her estranged father reappears with devastating news. Icing, meet cherry on top. But then there's Ben, the charming IT guy who, despite Emma's awkwardness and shortcomings, seems to maybe actually get her? Sobriety is turning out to be far from the flawless future Emma had once envisioned for herself, but as she allows herself to open up to Ben and confront difficult past relationships, she's beginning to realize that taking things one day at a time might just be the perfectly imperfect path she's meant to be on.

Bittersweet and darkly hilarious, Ava Robinson's debut novel about navigating sobriety and complicated family dynamics is witty, heartbreaking, and profoundly relatable.

Author: Ava Robinson
Publisher: Mira Books
Published: 12/17/2024
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.26h x 6.38w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780778310594


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/01/2024 pg. 1
Booklist 10/15/2024 pg. 19
Publishers Weekly 10/21/2024
Shelf Awareness 12/28/2024

About the Author
Robinson, Ava: - Ava Robinson is the assistant director of Sarah Lawrence College's Writing Institute and an alum of the New School's MFA program. Previously, she wrote and hosted the podcastTrace Material, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, for Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design. She has had her short fiction published inSoundings East, Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly, Little Patuxent Review, and elsewhere. Definitely Better Now is her first novel.