The Next Best Thing- Jennifer Weiner

Jennifer Weiner! Where has this been in the last several years?? The Next Best Thing, her latest, is a return to form. I won’t go quite as far as to say I liked it as much as In Her Shoes or Good in Bed, but it was light, funny, entertaining, and sweet. And considering that I have been fairly disappointed with nearly everything she’s written since she ruined Good in Bed with its sequel, Certain Girls (which I hated), that is a major step up. 

The Next Best Thing tells the story of Ruth, a television writer and showrunner whose pilot based loosely on her own life is picked up for a new season and immediately taken out of her hands. The book chronicles the sacrifices made by her to get her show on the air, good and bad, and her relationships with the other writers, producers, actors, and so on. I was hooked by the beginning, around chapter three. Ruth’s grandma is the best, and I couldn’t believe how fast I loved the character. Unfortunately for Jennifer Weiner, my first thought after realizing that she was the best thing going for the book was how she could ruin it. 

But Weiner proved me wrong and wrote an endearing story of a disfigured girl trying to make it in the entertainment world, with her loving grandmother by her side. Very much enjoyed this one, and it’s up there with the other ones. 4, bordering on a 5.