The Weekend Wife: A Novel

Summary

Read by acclaimed narrator Julia Whelan with a special note and recipes read by the author

The Wedding People meets Margo’s Got Money Troubles in this funny and heartwarming debut about a single woman whose online persona takes on a life of its own when a single father puts her grift, and her heart, to the test.

After a decade of struggling to make it on her own, Marjorie dreams up a side hustle that might just solve all her problems: joining the legions of homemaking influencers on social media.

The only issue? She can't cook and she can barely keep her life together. From her Brooklyn apartment—manipulated to resemble an elegant farmhouse—she films herself making DIY bird houses from "reclaimed" bark and baking refined sugar-free Teddy Grams, while her pastry chef sister and marketing genius best friend supply all the actual skills behind the scenes. Things are going relatively well until a widower from Utah, Hank Winthrop, enters the news cycle and inadvertently launches her into a new level of viral fame.

When a popular morning show offers Marj a lucrative opportunity to film a special at her home—the kind of life-changing money that could maybe fix everything—she is forced to step out from behind the screen to live her grift in real time. Over the course of one high-stakes weekend hosting the Winthrops at her fake farm in the Hudson River Valley, the side hustle that was supposed to save her starts to feel like her unravelling. As she gets to know Hank and his son, Marj discovers that deception has a price—and the biggest casualty may be her own heart.