I had read a couple of positive reviews of
The One That I Want and thought it sounded like a good, light read. It's light for sure, but I found it silly and predictable. Tilly Farmer is a 32-year-old guidance counselor, married to her high school sweetheart, and living in her home town; as the book opens, she is obsessed with planning the school musical and the prom--but her husband is falling asleep in front of the TV every night, her alcoholic father has started drinking again, and her youngest sister is angry with everyone except their dead mother. Obviously, all is not well, and it doesn't take a series of hokey visions that Tilly experiences after talking to a fortune teller at the fair to see trouble ahead.
As Scotch develops the story, Tilly uncovers family secrets, has some insights into the reasons for her risk-averse and controlling behavior, and begins to build a new life, with a new man (because an interesting new man is always waiting down the hall at work) and a return to a childhood interest (photography--as if turning that into a career is easy). The story is both too pat and too weird (the visions) to be believable or affecting.
Favorite passage: None
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