The Opposite of Love — Julie Buxbaum

With perfect pitch for the humor and heartbreak of everyday life, debut author Julie Buxbaum has fashioned a heroine who will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has loved and lost and loved again.

When twenty-nine-year-old Manhattan attorney Emily Haxby ends her happy relationship just as her boyfriend is about to propose, she can't explain to even her closest friends why she did it. But somewhere beneath her independent exterior, Emily knows that her breakup with Andrew has less to do with him and more to do with . . . her. "It's like you get pleasure out of breaking your own heart," her best friend, Jess, tells her.

As the holidays loom and Emily contemplates whether she made a huge mistake, the rest of her world begins to unravel. Her boss, who can't keep his hands to himself, assigns her to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in which she must defend the very values she detests. Her Grandpa Jack, the person she cares most about in the, world, is losing it, while her emotionally distant father has left her to cope alone. And underneath it all, memories of her deceased mother remind her that love doesn't last forever.

How this brave young woman finally faces the fears that have long haunted her is the great achievement of this marvelous first novel, written with authority, grace, and wisdom.