Katherine Hill sleeps six hours a night and spends the rest of her time zooming up the corporate ladder. When she's not busy being a hard-as-nails boss, she's running on the treadmill and eating carrot sticks.
In You Knew Me When, Emily Liebert's debut novel, Katherine wasn't always such a perfect, polished pain in the neck. She grew up nerdy yet beloved in a small town in Vermont. After college, she shed 30 pounds, dumped her best friend Laney and rejected the man she loved in one fell swoop when she left for New York in pursuit of a powerful new career.
Katherine is forced to confront her past when a rich aunt dies and leaves her a mansion in her hometown. Liebert is spinning the stuff of fantasy here and it's delicious. What woman doesn't dream of being left a fabulous dwelling full of designer clothes, handbags and shoes? Katherine goes into a tailspin, though, as she must face the still furious Laney, as well as the ex-lover who makes her heart melt into a puddle and the loving father she's barely had time to telephone in the past few years. It's enough to make a girl eat carbs.
Liebert moves back and forth through time, switching points of view from the teenage Laney and Katherine to their present day manifestations. It's a touching yarn, especially when it's revealed that Katherine's beauty and success is matched only by her loneliness. This story about transformation and second chances surely deserves a place in the beach bag. --Natalie Papailiou, author of blog MILF: Mother I'd Like to Friend