From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: The One That Got Away by Leigh Himes

Author: Leigh Himes

Publisher: Hachette Books

Date of publication: May 2016; Reprint June 13, 2017

In this irresistible debut novel, a freak accident allows a wife and mother to explore the alluring road not taken.

Meet Abbey Lahey . . .

Overworked mom. Underappreciated publicist. Frazzled wife of an out-of-work landscaper. A woman desperately in need of a vacation from life–and who is about to get one, thanks to an unexpected tumble down a Nordstrom escalator.

Meet Abbey van Holt . . .

The woman whose life Abbey suddenly finds herself inhabiting when she wakes up. Married to handsome congressional candidate Alex van Holt. Living in a lavish penthouse. Wearing ball gowns and being feted by the crème of Philadelphia society. Luxuriating in the kind of fourteen-karat lifestyle she’s only read about in the pages of Town & Country.

The woman Abbey might have been . . . if she had said yes to a date with Alex van Holt all those years ago.

Have you ever looked at your life and thought "What if?". In The One That Got Away, Abbey wakes up after falling off an escalator and ends up in an alternate reality. She gets to actually find out "What If?". Unfortunately for her, the grass isn't so green on the other side for her. I have very mixed feelings about this book. After I finished with it. I wasn't sure how I really felt. In the end, I liked it, but didn't love it as much as I would have liked.

The part I did like about the book was the concept. Imagine waking up from a bump on the head and you suddenly have the life you have envied from afar. The take away from this book is that sometimes you are better off looking at what you have and not what you don't have to see what really matters. Throughout her time as Abbey van Holt, she reflects back on her relationship with her real husband, Jimmy. How they fell in love and how things had begun to fall apart over the past year. I think that she did end up learning a valuable lesson and that gave me hope for her in the future.

What I didn't like so much was the alternate reality. Abbey never reacts to her "new" life, She kind of calmly goes with the flow. I expected her to be a bit more freaked out about stuff. I never got that sense. It was almost like she was excited to have left her other life behind. I also disliked that she slept with Alex, yet didn't feel unfaithful until much later in the book when she mentions it after something fairly insignificant. One thing that I would have liked to see was how she ended up becoming so superficial. What happened to make her change so much? I would have loved to see that explored more.

I think this is a book you have to read for yourself. There were definitely aspects I enjoyed, so I do recommend trying it out.

About Leigh Himes

Author Leigh Himes has spent fourteen years working in the public relations field. Born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, she now lives just outside of Philadelphia with her husband and their two children. This is her first book.

TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS for The One That Got Away:

Monday, June 5th: Books and Bindings

Monday, June 12th: From the TBR Pile

Wednesday, June 14th: Chick Lit Central

Thursday, June 15th: Becky on Books

Friday, June 16th: A Dream Within a Dream

Monday, June 19th: Ms. Nose in a Book

Tuesday, June 20th: Jathan & Heather