Elizabeth the First Wife

Dolan's sophomore effort (after Helen of Pasadena) is a charmingly funny and effortless read. Elizabeth Lancaster is happy with her life as an English professor at a community college in Pasadena, CA. Though her overachieving family includes a Nobel laureate father, a sister who's pursuing a cure for cancer, and another sister who is helping her congressman husband move on to bigger and better things, Elizabeth likes where she's landed. At least she thought she did. Then FX Fahey, a hunky Hollywood movie star and her ex-husband, arrives on her doorstep and throws her for a loop. It took Elizabeth years to get over FX, but his offer of a job helping to stage A Midsummer Night's Dream may just suck her back in. Joining FX in Ashland, OR, is only the first hurdle. Once on site, Elizabeth discovers that things aren't going to be as easy as FX predicted. When complications spark a visit from the entire Lancaster clan to town, not to mention the man with whom Elizabeth has been skyping all summer, our heroine is torn between fight and flight.