{"product_id":"skipping-a-beat-a-novel","title":"Skipping a Beat: A Novel","description":"327 pp. What would you do if your husband suddenly wanted to rewrite all of the rules of your relationship?  This is the question at the heart of Skipping a Beat, Pekkanen's thought-provoking second book. From the outside, Julia and Michael seem to have it all.  Both products of difficult childhoods in rural West Virginia  -  where they were simply Julie and Mike  -  they become high school sweethearts and fall in love.  Shortly after graduation, they flee their small town to start afresh.  Now thirty-somethings, they are living a rarified life in their multi-million-dollar, Washington D.C. home. Julia is a highly sought-after party planner, while Michael has just sold his wildly successful flavored water company for $70 million. But one day, Michael collapses in his office. Four minutes and eight seconds after his cardiac arrest, a portable defibrillator jump-starts his heart. But in those lost minutes he becomes a different man. Money is meaningless to him - and he wants to give it all away. Julia, who sees bits of her life reflected in scenes from the world's great operas, is now facing with a choice she never anticipated. Should she should walk away from the man she once adored  -  but who truthfully became a stranger to her long before this pronouncement - or give in to her husband's pleas for a second chance and a promise of a poorer but happier life? As wry and engaging as her debut, but with quiet depth and newfound maturity, Skipping a Beat is an unforgettable portrait of a marriage whose glamorous surface belies the complications and betrayals beneath.","brand":"Washington Square Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39806691409990,"sku":"2321753","price":4.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1232\/9510\/products\/2321753.jpg?v=1645032378","url":"https:\/\/ym-demo.myshopify.com\/products\/skipping-a-beat-a-novel","provider":"Yesterday's Muse","version":"1.0","type":"link"}