The Way We Weren't

Phoebe Fox

Nov 2021 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

An unlikely friendship between a septuagenarian and a younger woman becomes a story of broken trust, lost love, and the unexpected blooming of hope against the longest odds.

"You trying to kill yourself, or are you just stupid?"
 
Marcie Malone didn't think she was either, but when she drives from Georgia to the southwestern shore of Florida without a plan and wakes up in a stranger's home, she doesn't seem to know anymore. Despondent and heartbroken over an unexpected loss and the man she thought she could count on, Marcie leaves him behind, along with her job and her whole life, and finds she has nowhere to go.
 
Herman Flint has seen just about everything in his seventy years living in a fading, blue-collar Florida town, but the body collapsed on the beach outside his window is something new. The woman is clearly in some kind of trouble and Flint wants no part of it—he's learned to live on his own just fine, without the hassle of worrying about others. But against his better judgment he takes Marcie in and lets her stay until she's on her feet on the condition she keeps out of his way.
 
As the unlikely pair slowly copes with the damage life has wrought, Marcie and Flint have to decide whether to face up to the past they’ve each been running from, and find a way to move forward with the people they care about most.

Ratings and reviews

Even though the writing was well seasoned with angst, which isn’t on my list of favorite things, I didn’t seem to mind a bit as the storylines squeezed my heart and kept me fully engaged and heavily invested. I was so deeply immersed in Ms. Fox’s perceptive storytelling that, SMH, for a hot moment I felt the need to start making my own preparations for the incoming hurricane the characters were expecting. Sigh, she sucked me right into their tale of familial woe and regrets, which were fretfully real and relatable. Marcie had been enjoying a good life but it was one of acquiescence rather than one of her choosing, and don’t we all do that to some extent? She didn’t realize she wasn’t satisfied with the way things were until she experienced a personal trauma and went off the rails, and this is where her adventure begins. It wasn’t an easy beach vacation, but she found pieces of herself, took some thoughtless risks, and was helped by a cranky and cantankerous old coot who had more layers than an egg farm. I alternated between adoring him and wanting to give him a few smacks with my Kindle. Once again, Ms. Fox’s writing was uncannily insightful, itchy, and shrewdly paced. She stealthily slotted me into her characters’ tale and had me digging in the sand while rescuing turtle eggs, dancing rave style, serving beer in a dive bar, and digging out of a hurricane. I’m not used to this much activity, I need a spa day to recover.

About the author

Phoebe Fox is the author of the Breakup Doctor series (The Breakup Doctor, Bedside Manners, Heart Conditions, Out of Practice) and has been a contributor or regular columnist for a number of national, regional, and local publications, including the Huffington Post, Elite Daily, and SheKnows. A former actor on stage and screen, Phoebe has been dangled from wires as a mall fairy; was accidentally concussed by a blank gun; and hosted a short-lived game show. She has been a relationship columnist; a movie, theater, and book reviewer; and a radio personality, and currently lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two excellent dogs.