The Breakaway: A Novel

Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern lives a contented life in Philadelphia with her bicycling club, good friends, and her bike. She is engaged to Mark Medoff, her childhood sweetheart whom she met at a weight-loss camp. Yet Abby feels uncertain about her future and is haunted by memories of a brief encounter with a man named Sebastian two years earlier. When Abby is invited to lead a cycling trip from New York City to Niagara Falls, she accepts as a chance to step back and clarify her feelings. The journey becomes complicated when Sebastian unexpectedly appears among the riders. Their chemistry remains strong, but Abby resolves to maintain distance. The situation grows more complex when her mother, Eileen—whom Abby holds responsible for years of body shaming—joins the trip at the last minute. Over two weeks and more than seven hundred miles, the group of riders transforms from strangers into friends. Hidden truths emerge, and a teenage girl's secret affects the entire group. Through these experiences, Abby is forced to reconsider her beliefs about herself, her mother, and what love means.