Your Roots are Showing Book

Lizzie Buckley has a life many women dream of - a gorgeous husband, a beautiful home and darling (when they're not fighting) three-year-old twins. But ever since the birth of her children, she's had a fantasy about locking herself in her bedroom for twenty-four hours with a good book and a box of chocolates.


Unfortunately, her husband James doesn't understand her feelings. And when Lizzie unburdens herself in a flaming email to her sister Janie, then hits send at the wrong moment and accidentally shoots it off to James instead, her fairytale life gets a big dose of reality. With the word "divorce" ringing in her ears, Lizzie finds herself moving out and embarking on a totally different life - working hard to reinvent herself as a runner, a gardener, and a writer of children's books.


But despite transforming her body, her neglected career, and her libido (courtesy of the local landscape gardener), Lizzie can't get over her soon-to-be ex. As Lizzie discovers, sometimes the fairytale ending is just the beginning of the real story.

Publishers Weekly

Chidley's overlong snoozer chronicles a woman's make over when her husband leaves her. After a particularly difficult day, Lizzie Buckley fires off a scathing e-mail to her sister detailing her many petty resentments of her husband, James. Unfortunately, the missive instead goes to James, who quickly announces he's leaving her. Before long, Lizzie and her twin toddlers move to the town where her best friend lives, and Lizzie realizes that she may have been depressed for a long time and lacked self-awareness in her marriage. Meanwhile, James wants a divorce and seems to have taken up with his assistant, yet Lizzie hopes to win James back. Genre standards abound: there's the ruggedly handsome possible rebound fling for Lizzie, the wacky therapist, the nasty mother-in-law and the "it was all a big misunderstanding" air-clearing. It's heavily traveled territory, and Chidley doesn't do much to distinguish herself. (Oct.)

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