Hot and Bothered

A wickedly funny first novel about how not to be a desperate housewife

She's offbeat, off balance, and at times of-the-wall, a late-thirties mother of two living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and trying to figure out who she is now that her husband has left her. He's a rat, anyway, and currently attends Sex Addicts Anonymous. He still comes by the house, though, as do her hippie, macrobiotic mother; her fiesty, alchoholic best friend; her God-fearing grandmother; and that Perfect Guy, the one with the beatific son who plays with her daughter - the one who happens to have a winning smile, wild black hair, a professorship at Harvard--and (drats!) a gorgeous doctor girlfriend.

Told in short takes that perfectly mimic the frantic nature of our busy lives, Hot and Bothered follows its herione through the streets of Cambridge, where she spends far too much time staring into space and sipping mocha lattes with extra whipped cream; to church, where she prays for a little salvation; to Alaska, where she believes a rugged outdoorsman might just be that salvation; and to Cape Cod, where, in a little house by the sea, she might finally see the light.

Annie Downey has written an updated Cinderella story for all single moms.

Advance Praise:

"This sexy single mom is a herione I can relate to, and Annie Downey--that rare author who pays attention to the way people actually behave--tells her story with perfect pitch. Hot and Bothered has the quick inspiration of a pop song and the lasting power of a modern myth." Ariel Gore, author of Atlas of the Human Heart