From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train, and the critically acclaimed author of Bird in Hand, comes a novel of love, risk, and self-discovery—includes a special PS section featuring insights, interviews, and more.
Angela can feel the clock ticking. She is single in New York City, stuck in a job she doesn’t want and a life that seems to have, somehow, just happened. She … happened. She inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, but she never seems to have the time for it—these days, her oven holds only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a photo from a magazine of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine—a charming reminder of a life that could be hers, if she could only muster the courage to go after it.
On a hope and a chance, Angela decides to pack it all up and move to Maine, finding the nudge she needs in the dating profile of a handsome sailor who loves dogs and Italian food. But her new home isn’t quite matching up with the fantasy. Far from everything familiar, Angela begins to rebuild her life from the ground up. Working at a local coffeehouse, she begins to discover the pleasures and secrets of her new small-town community and, in the process, realizes there’s really no such thing as the way life should be.
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Cristina Baker Kline , as always, does not disappoint. The Way Life Should Be is wonderful reading . This book , as are her others, is interesting, entertaininhg and optimisric. I look forward always to her books and will continue to do so.
Loved it! I didn’t want it to end.
Wonderful read about Mount Desert Island in Maine in the cold. Believable characters; deserves a sequel; humorous adventures of a young New York City/Jersey woman transplanted to Maine.
The book was just okay. I have read some of her other works and loved them. Not so much with this one.
Did not like it
Enjoyed the emotional journey with lots of light hearted fun narratives.
This was an ok story line. I’ve read others along the same line that were better written but it is readable.
Her writing is superb as always, and I loved the story line.
Well-written and realistic.
I have always like the painting, Christina’s World. I love the way the author mixes facts with fiction. Now I see more things in the painting like the thin arms. I also thought she was just lounging on the grass, not trying to get from one place to another. It would be a dark book if it weren’t for the friendship and family that is just below …
It was light reading that had a predictable ending.
I enjoyed the setting, which was very familiar to me.
It wasn’t ‘a real page turner’ but it was witty in parts and just a nice relaxing read
A nice romance where the heroine learns to think more and that overly romanticizing every prospective date has consequences. Real expectations produce a better outcome. A little sappy at the end,but still a joy to read.
Excellent read. Great characters
Delightful light read! Very likable main character, with lots of interesting people well-fleshed out in her life. I laughed out loud several times while reading this. Explores relationships, image-evoking scenic details, and loads of information for Italian cooking!
Good story with slowly developing characters.
I liked this book about a young woman in New York City who meets a man on the internet and moves to Maine. Entertaining
Angela is young enough to throw the life she knows away and make a clean start in Maine… What got her there may be misguided, but after plenty of struggle… she finds and accepts herself.