I have read several books by Jennifer Weiner so I knew what to expect and I was looking for an easy read/romance story. I don’t know if I was not in the right mindset, but I found this book insufferable – or I should say all the characters were insufferable.
The Breakaway centers around the main character Abby who is tasked to lead a group on a two week bike ride from New York City ending at Niagara Falls. Of course, the good-looking guy who she had a one-night stand (her only one ever as well as it being the best sex) a couple years prior is part of the group. And of course, her mother also surprises her by joining the ride. So, the ride becomes this never ending drama/struggle for Abby who is trying to avoid both Sebastian (one night stand guy) and her mother because she harbors unresolved issues with both. As one of Abby’s friends calls her out on, Abby constantly does “the fat-girl, self-deprecating shtick” and that is Abby’s whole storyline. She can’t fathom why Sebastian would like her and she has never forgiven her mother for sending her to fat camp every summer in her youth. Abby really needs to get some therapy because trying to escape her problems by riding a bike is not helping even though the book’s message unfortunately indicates the opposite. As you can imagine in the end, Abby and Sebastian end up together and Abby resolves her issues with her mother. It wouldn’t be so infuriating if Abby didn’t blatantly cheat on her boyfriend of two years with Sebastian on the trip! She has little remorse about it and the reader is supposed to sympathize with her because her boyfriend is the bad guy because he doesn’t know how to ride and bike and doesn’t eat desserts.
The only interesting part of the book is the secondary storyline about one of the other riders. Morgan is a teenage girl who has recently discovered that she is pregnant. She has convinced her mother to do this trip under the guise of bonding but Morgan plans to try to sneak away during the trip to get an abortion. Morgan can’t tell her mother about the pregnancy because her family is super religious (dad is a pastor) and anti-abortion. Given the state of things I did find this story compelling and prescient but the end resolution with Morgan and her mother was just too easy.