“Tender, heartfelt, and all too real (in the best way!).”
Natalie Sue, author of I Hope This Finds You Well

A touching and deeply funny debut about starting over sober only to discover lifes biggest messes are still waiting right where you left them.

The very last person anyone should worry about is Emma. Yes, hi, shes an alcoholic. But shes officially been sober for one entire year. That’s fifty-two whole weeks of focusing on nothing but her nine-to-five office job, group meetings, and avoiding the kind of bad decisions that previously left her awash in shame and regret. Its also been 365 days of not dating. And with her new dating profile, Emma, 26, of New York is ready to put herself back out there.

Exceptwas dating always this complicated? And did Emmas mother really have to choose now to move in with her new boyfriend? Being assigned to plan her offices holiday party feels like icing on the suddenly very overwhelming cake until her estranged father reappears with devastating news. Icing, meet cherry on top. But then theres Ben, the charming IT guy who seems to maybe actually get Emma? Sobriety is turning out to be far from the flawless future she once envisioned for herself, but shes beginning to realize that taking things one day at a time might just be the perfectly imperfect path shes meant to be on.

Bittersweet and darkly hilarious, Ava Robinsons debut novel about navigating sobriety and complicated family dynamics is witty, heartbreaking, and profoundly relatable.