Title: The Breakaway
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Narrator: Nikki Blonsky, Santino Fontana, Jenni Barber, Soneela Nankani, Joy Osmanski
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: August 29, 2023
Print length: 400 pages
Audio length: 13 hours, 30 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased (audiobook); E-book ARC from the publisher/NetGalley
Rating:
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 summer 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 group: 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.
In Jennifer Weiner’s wonderful new novel, we spend time with Abby Stern, a smart woman in her 30s who’s comfortable in her body, happiest on a bicycle, and questioning whether her seemingly perfect boyfriend of two years is actually perfect for her.
Abby has spent her life subject to her mother’s constant criticism of her size and weight, and was even forced to spend three summers at a “fat camp”. But as an adult, Abby knows that her active lifestyle keeps her healthy, and refuses to chase diet fads or deny herself the pleasure of good food in pursuit of the elusive slimness everyone thinks she should want.
As for her love life, Abby is adored by her podiatrist boyfriend Mark, and she knows she can have a good life with him, but she’s hesitant about taking the next step. Something seems to be missing. On the verge of having to make a decision about moving in with Mark, Abby is offered a last-minute job leading a two-week bike trip from Manhattan to Niagara Falls, and although nervous about it, she decides that this might be just what she needs to clear her head, escape for a little while, and even have a little fun.
As the group assembles, Abby gets two shocks: Her mother has joined the trip, and so has Sebastian, the gorgeous guy she had an out-of-character one-night-stand with a couple of years earlier. She’s never forgotten how amazing the night with Sebastian was, even though she never expected to see him again. What’s even more shocking to Abby is how delighted Sebastian seems to be to see her, and how excited he is at the idea of spending time with her.
The story is told largely through Abby’s perspective, although we also get sections from Sebastian’s point of view, as well as shorter interludes from others on the trip. Sebastian’s chapters are interesting, as we get to see what’s going on in his head and understand the backstory of his sudden social media infamy, and also powerful are chapters focused on a teen girl and her mother.
I loved seeing Abby in her element, and I truly appreciated the portrayal of her as someone comfortable in her body and embracing health without focusing on her weight. Abby is a great example of body positivity as well as empowerment, and as we see her developing plans for the next stages of her life, I was impressed by her goal of empowering younger girls through cycling education and riding.
One secondary plotline involves the women of the bike trip coming together to support a teen girl, enabling her to access the health care and choices she’d be denied in her home state. The sense of community and the way the women all participated in keeping the teen safe were lovely and inspiring to read about.
And of course, there’s a romantic element which works really well, although in some ways, the love story aspects are less important than the soul-searching and self-discovery that several of the characters undergo throughout the book. Also really fun? The bike trip itself! Apparently, I’m a sucker for a good outdoor adventure tale, and even though I haven’t been on a bike in years, the trip sounded just wonderful to me.
The audiobook has several narrators, but Abby and Sebastian’s voices are of course dominant throughout the story. Abby is voiced by Nikki Blonsky (who starred in the Hairspray movie), and Sebastian is voiced by Santino Fontana (the original Greg in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend). Both are terrific.
Jennifer Weiner is one of my must-read authors at this point, and The Breakaway absolutely delivers. I think I still have a few of her earlier books to get to , and I’ll certainly be reading whatever she writes next.
The Breakaway is enjoyable, entertaining, and emotionally moving and satisfying. Highly recommended.
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