I grabbed Lani Diane Rich‘s novel Time Off for Good Behavior from the Amazon KDP list.
Description from Goodreads:
Expressing anger is healthy.
Wanda’s gonna live forever.
For Wanda Lane, life has been one long string of screw-ups. Her abusive ex-husband keeps threatening to kill her, she just lost her crappy job, and a head injury (sustained while diving off the witness stand to attack an obnoxious attorney) has left her hearing phantom music no one else can hear. It isn’t until she hits the rock bottom of her bottle of scotch that she begins to wonder if maybe — just maybe — the problem is her.
On her pothole-ridden path to becoming a decent human being, she makes friends with Elizabeth, a single mother looking for her own solid ground; Father Gregory, the patient priest who counsels Wanda, even though she’s not technically Catholic; and Walter, a Jimmy-Stewart-ish lawyer who is smart, sexy and single… and so far out of Wanda’s league that she thinks he must have been sent from God as one last punishment for her past transgressions. Can an angry, lost woman find her way back from failure, or are second chances the stuff of myth?
Wanda’s gonna find out.
You may want to move out of her way
Review:
I have to say I really enjoyed Wanda and all of her Idiosyncrasies. Honestly, the woman is just a little crazy for most of the book and the situations she finds herself in are patently absurd. So you do just kind of have to role with it to a certain extent. I think her terse relationship with Father Hard-Ass is my favourite. There is so much witty sarcasm, what someone else called snark, in this book that I couldn’t help but be constantly amused.
True conversation:
My husband sauntered into the living-room chuckling.
Me: “What?”
Him: “Nothing. I’m just laughing at you sitting there grinning to yourself.”
Me (waving my Kindle at him indignantly): “But it’s funny.”
Him (shaking his head knowingly): “I’m sure it is.”
Me (lovingly to his departing back): “Bastard”
Yep, that’s how it goes. Wanda’s journey of self-discovery is one I think a lot of women can relate to. If we’re all as lucky as her and can finally come to not only understand but accept ourselves life will surely improve. Of course, she is helped along by a whole cadre of new friends and one AMAZING new love interest. Yes, Walter (aka Jimmy Stewart) is just far too good to be true. So, of course, it’s impossible not to love him. It only took me an evening to read the book and I’m glad I gave it the time.