The Breakaway

About the book

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes 'a zippy rom-com with genuine heart and soul' (People) about love, family, friendship, secrets, and one woman’s life-changing journey.

Abby Stern, who is thirty-three years old, has reached a happy place in her life. Although she still holds gig jobs instead of a career, and her apartment looks like she just moved in, she has good friends, her bike, and her biking club in Philadelphia. She has come to accept her plus-size body most of the time, and she is set to marry Mark Medoff, her childhood sweetheart whom she met at a weight-loss camp her mother made her attend.

However, Abby cannot shake off the feeling that something is off or forget the thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years ago. When she receives a last-minute invitation to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, she gladly accepts the opportunity to take a break from Mark and contemplate her future.

Things quickly become complicated as Abby recognizes a face from the past in the group - Sebastian, the one-night stand she thought she would never see again. Despite their chemistry, Abby is determined to keep her distance. Additionally, her mother, Eileen, unexpectedly joins the trip - the woman Abby holds responsible for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she is still trying to overcome.

During the two-week, seven-hundred-mile trip, strangers become friends, hidden truths emerge, a teenage girl with a secret brings the riders together in unexpected ways, and Abby is forced to reevaluate everything she knows about herself, her mother, and the essence of love.