In this witty and romantic debut novel, Jane Austenâs Emma meets the misadventures of Manhattanâs modern dating scene as two lifelong friends discover that, in the search for love, you sometimes donât have to look any further than your own backyard.
Beautiful, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse has lived twenty-three years in her tight-knit Upper East Side neighborhood with very little to distress or vex herâŚthat is, until her budding matchmaking hobby results in her sisterâs marriageâand subsequent move downtown. Now, with her sister gone and all her friends traveling abroad, Emma must start her final year of grad school grappling with an entirely new emotion: boredom. So when she meets Nadine, a wide-eyed Ohio transplant with a heart of gold and drugstore blonde highlights to match, Emma not only sees a potential new friend but a new project. If only her overbearing neighbor George Knightley would get out of her way.
Handsome, smart, and successful, the only thing that frustrates Knightley more than a corked whiskey is his childhood friend, Emma. Whether itâs her shopping sprees between classes or her revolving door of ill-conceived hobbies, he is only too happy to lecture her on all the finer points of adulthood sheâs so hell-bent on ignoring. But despite his gripesâand much to his own chagrinâKnightley canât help but notice that the girl next door is a woman nowâŚone who he suddenly canât get out of his head.
As Emmaâs best laid plans collide with everyone from hipster baristas to meddling family members to flaky playboy millionaires, these two friends slowly realize their need to always be right has been usurped by a new need entirely, and itâs not long before they discover that even the most familiar stories still have some surprises.