I Used to be Fun

A Seattle wife and mother who gave up everything to raise her family — and is about to take it all back.

Jessica Holloway is miserable. 

As mom to two ungrateful, almost-grown children and wife to one appreciative-but-needy husband, 46-year-old Jess has all but abandoned the extraordinary — and extraordinarily fun — woman she used to be. She may be smiling while she volunteers at the school's dog wash fundraiser, but inside, she's seething with perimenopausal rage.

Having scored in the top five percent on her LSAT before family changed everything, Jess decides it's time to go back and finish what she started. She lands a job as assistant to a hopelessly disorganized Seattle lawyer, signs up for night classes, and starts clawing her way toward the life she was supposed to have.

But somewhere between the night classes and the chaos of her boss's filing system, Jess makes a discovery she didn't see coming. The dream she's been mourning for twenty years? It doesn't fit anymore. And what she finds instead — in the most unexpected of places — turns out to be exactly what she was looking for.

For every woman who dog-eared Are You There God, It's Me Margaret as a girl and is still waiting for someone to write the perimenopause sequel.

Genre: Women's Fiction · Family Dramedy · Domestic Life Fiction
Tone: Funny · Laugh-out-loud moments · Honest · Uplifting · Emotionally satisfying ending
Themes: Self-discovery · Perimenopause · Female entrepreneurship · Marriage · Identity · Domestic life
Setting: Seattle, Washington
Content Notes: No explicit content · Family conflict · Perimenopausal themes · Career sacrifice and reclamation
For Fans Of: Gail Honeyman (Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine) · Marian Keyes
Perfect For: Book clubs · Women 40–55 · Fans of funny honest women's fiction