The Next Best Thing

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Authors: Jennifer Weiner

Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary, #Contemporary Women

BOOK: The Next Best Thing
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Actors aren’t the only ones trying to make it in Hollywood . . .

 

A
t twenty-three, Ruth Saunders left her childhood home in Massachusetts and headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to make it as a screenwriter. Six years later, she has hit the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote,
The Next Best Thing,
has gotten the green light, and Ruthie’s going to be the showrunner. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, number-crunching executives, an unrequited crush on her boss, and her grandmother’s impending nuptials.

Set against the fascinating backdrop of Los Angeles show business culture, with an insider’s ear for writer’s room showdowns and an eye for bad backstage behavior and set politics, Jennifer Weiner’s new novel is a rollicking ride on the Hollywood roller coaster, a heartfelt story about what it’s like for a young woman to love, and lose, in the land where dreams come true.

PRAISE FOR

J
ENNIFER
W
EINER

“A writer of innate brilliance.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

 

“Jennifer Weiner’s bestselling novels twist humor and topical issues into can’t-put-down stories.”
—The Houston Chronicle

 

“Hilarious, heartbreaking, and insightful, Weiner shows she can write with exquisite tenderness as well as humor.”
—The Miami Herald

 

“Weiner balances romantic formula with fresh humor and literary sensibility.”
—Elaine Showalter,
The Guardian

 

“One of her generation’s best literary voices.”
—The Boston Herald

 

“Weiner has a brilliant eye for social stratum, character sketches, and renderings of suburban atmospherics.”
—The Washington Post

 
 

JENNIFER WEINER
is the author of ten books, including
Good
in Bed, In Her Shoes,
which was made into a major motion picture, and
Then Came You
. She was the co-creator and co-executive producer of the ABC Family sitcom
State of
Georgia,
which aired in 2011. She lives with her family in Philadelphia. To learn more, visit
www.jenniferweiner.com
.

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COPYRIGHT © 2012 SIMON & SCHUSTER

The Next Best Thing

 

A
LSO BY
J
ENNIFER
W
EINER

 

Good in Bed
In Her Shoes
Little Earthquakes
Goodnight Nobody
The Guy Not Taken
Certain Girls
Best Friends Forever
Fly Away Home
Then Came You

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A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Jennifer Weiner, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Books hardcover edition July 2012

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BOOKS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weiner, Jennifer.

The next best thing : a novel / Jennifer Weiner.—1st Atria Books
hardcover ed.

p. cm.

1. Women screenwriters—Fiction. 2. Self-realization in women—Fiction.
3. Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3573.E3935N49 2012
0813’.6—dc23

2012015557

 

ISBN 978-1-4516-1775-7 (print)
ISBN 978-1-4516-1777-1 (eBook)

For my brothers, Jake and Joe Weiner

 
Contents

Part One: Golden Girls

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

 

Part Two: The New World

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

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