The Next Best Thing

Blockbuster #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner returns with an irresistible story about a young woman trying to make it in Hollywood… Actors aren’t the only ones trying to make it in Hollywood.…At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders left her childhood home in Massachusetts and headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to make it as a screenwriter. Six years later, she hits the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, The Next Best Thing, has gotten the green light, and Ruthie’s going to be the showrunner. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, number-crunching executives, an unrequited crush on her boss, and her grandmother’s impending nuptials. Set against the fascinating backdrop of Los Angeles show business culture, with an insider’s ear for writer’s room showdowns and an eye for bad backstage behavior and set politics, Jennifer Weiner’s new novel is a rollicking ride on the Hollywood roller coaster, a heartfelt story about what it’s like for a young woman to love, and lose, in the land where dreams come true.

Finding a man should be simple, especially when you aren’t expecting romance! Lucy Lang wants a husband. She’s not looking for anyone special, just someone decent and reliable—but definitely not a man she’ll fall in love with. A young widow, Lucy already loved and lost her soulmate, and she doesn’t want to risk that kind of heartbreak again. But sick of being lumped in with her cursed “Black Widow” aunts, Lucy is motivated to give up her casual and completely inappropriate relationship with Ethan Mirabelli, her handsome neighbor, and search for something more dependable. Having been friends with Lucy for years, Ethan knows what she needs better than anyone else—and that’s him. But convincing her that their relationship is more than a “friends with privileges” arrangement will be a long, complicated process. Luckily, Ethan has always been patient… Previously published

If only I knew then what I know now… How many times have you heard it said? How many times have you wished it? Suppose two of your best friends offered to create a living clone, an exact copy of you at the peak of your youth except that it would be genetically perfect and would age much slower than the original. Suppose further, that these friends, who you knew could deliver, could transfer your intellect, your whole life experience into the clone. In one painless process you would go to sleep as you are and wake up as a perfect 24-year-old with all of your memories, experiences and feelings intact. It would be The Next Best Thing to going back to your youth with all of your present knowledge and wisdom. Now suppose that while you were in the process of considering such an incredible proposal one of these friends proved to you, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that she was an extraterrestrial. And then, while delving into the groundbreaking technology that makes the cloning and transfer process possible, you discovered something even more astounding.

Believing she is realizing her dreams when her sitcom is bought, television writer Ruth Saunders finds her happiness threatened by demanding actors and executives as well as an unrequited crush and her grandmother's upcoming wedding.

You never know what the day is going to bring and what you might get into during the course of it. But what I do know is that in life, you should expect the unexpected. That way, the shock of whatever happens won’t kill you. My name is Simone McKnight, and this is my story of confusion.

At thirty-five, Jane realises something rather disturbing. She thought she had her life perfectly balanced: working from home as a a freelance translator allows her to keep her financial independence, spend time with her daughter and escape office politics. But somehow, instead of combining a rewarding career with a satisfying mother-daughter relationship, she's become an all-purpose dogsbody, rushing from crisis to crisis and combining missing deadlines with repairing the dishwasher. Rupert is also leading the life he planned: a job in the city, glamorous girlfriend, plenty of money. But he's beginning to have doubts about the dull-but-sensible route he's chosen - and to realise it's just possible he wants more out of life. So when he and Jane meet, each escaping their day-to-day life with a stolen afternoon in the peace of the cinema, they both start to wonder whether it's really enough to settle for the next best thing ...

When Earth is conquered by a technologically superior race called the Grath, humanity is forced to work--and fight--for them. But not all humans are content to submit to their masters... While the rest of humanity is forced to toil away their lives in dank factories building equipment for the alien war machine of the Grath, Jason Cull and a select few are being trained to help fight battles in place of their masters. According to the Academy's brochures, Jason should be one of the best and the brightest the human race has to offer. So why does he feel decidedly average? As graduation and the impending trials of war close in, Jason and his closest friends find themselves kidnapped by forces with radically different plans. Thrown into the midst of a resistance movement that demands him to fight against the Grath instead of alongside them, Jason begins the process of proving himself all over again.