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. Thats twelve months of better health. 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, despite Emmas awkwardness and shortcomings, seems to maybe actually get her? Sobriety is turning out to be far from the flawless future Emma had once envisioned for herself, but as she allows herself to open up to Ben and confront difficult past relationships, 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.