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Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson

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Better Luck Next Time

A Novel

by Julia Claiborne Johnson

Narrator David Aaron Baker

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Length 8 hours 52 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“This funny, poignant novel brings to life the wild world of Reno's Depression-era divorce ranches, where well-heeled women could spend six weeks enjoying the dude ranch experience while fulfilling the residency requirement for a quick, uncontested Nevada divorce. Our hero Ward is a formerly wealthy Yale dropout whose family lost everything in the Crash. Now, he's got a job as a ranch hand, squiring the clients of the Flying Leap through their long, languid days while they wait for their divorces to be finalized. But two women, pixie-ish Emily and bold Nina, turn his life upside down over the course of one hot summer that leaves them all inexorably changed. David Aaron Baker's warm and folksy narration brings Ward to life, and is the perfect complement to Johnson's spirited writing. I laughed a lot, cried more than a little, and thoroughly enjoyed this lovely story.”
— Emily • Inklings Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“Funny and divorce are typically not words that go together except for when you read this comedic story filled with the hijinks of bored, wealthy women waiting out the required six weeks to be eligible for a Nevada divorce. This little slice of historical fiction is wonderfully atmospheric as it captures the essence of both the western landscape and the 1930’s time period. It has the perfect vibe of wistful nostalgia, as our narrator reflects on his time as a handsome young “ranch hand” at a divorce ranch. Funny, interesting, and flawed characters combined with ridiculous situations and witty dialogue are what really makes this work. It’s a great exploration of friendship and love intertwined with the complications that money and class can bring to relationships and obligations. I began to anticipate the ending, but I have to admit it was still the perfect way for Ward’s story to conclude.”
— Cori • Bright Side Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“Johnson’s latest novel has all the heart and soul fans of Be Frank With Me enjoyed, coupled with a retro setting at a divorce ranch in Reno during the Great Depression. Funny? Check. Heartwarming? Check. A rollicking, all-round good read? Check! Do yourself a favor and read it. Then share it with someone you love.”
— Susan • Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza

Summary
About the author

""Do you want to read something funny? Let’s say, a novel set at a divorce ranch in Reno in the 1930s? A book with memorably eccentric characters, sparkling dialogue, a satisfying plot twist, and some romance and sex? A feel-good literary comedy/western? Here it is, then, the book you've been looking for: Julia Claiborne Johnson’s Better Luck Next Time.""—Julie Schumacher, author of Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement

The long anticipated second novel from the bestselling author of Be Frank with Me, a charming story of endings, new beginnings, and the complexities and complications of friendship and love, set in late 1930s Reno.

It’s 1938 and women seeking a quick, no-questions split from their husbands head to the “divorce capital of the world,” Reno, Nevada. There’s one catch: they have to wait six-weeks to become “residents.” Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need.

Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Admired for his dashing good looks—“Cary Grant in cowboy boots”—Ward thinks he’s got the Flying Leap’s clients all figured out. But two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno.

A novel about divorce, marriage, and everything that comes in between (money, class, ambition, and opportunity), Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious yet poignant examination of the ways friendship can save us, love can destroy us, and the family we create can be stronger than the family we come from.

Fiction Fiction - Literary

Julia Claiborne Johnson is the author of the bestselling Be Frank with Me, a finalist for the American Bookseller’s Association Best Debut Novel Award. She grew up on a farm in Tennessee before moving to New York City, where she worked at Mademoiselle and Glamour magazines. She now lives in Los Angeles with her comedy-writer husband and their two children.