Quick Pick: Younger, by Pamela Redmond Satran

• Opening lines: I almost didn't get on the ferry.
• Reason I picked up the book: Younger is one of my new favorite TV shows (see the updated book cover at right, starring Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff) and I just found out it's based upon this book. 
• And what's this book about?
She's old enough to be his mother.

Alice has always looked young for her age, even with her graying hair and her dowdy New Jersey housewife style. Make that ex-housewife: Now that her husband's gone and her daughter is grown, Alice is in desperate need of a whole new life. So she lets her best friend Maggie, a hip New York City artist, transform her on New Year's Eve. Soon, thanks to the wonders of hair dye and tight jeans, Alice looks really young, as one night in a Manhattan bar confirms. At midnight, she kisses a boy who was in diapers when she was in high school.

She's having too much fun to care.

The white lie Alice tells Josh gets her thinking that if no one asks her age, she doesn't have to tell. So she applies for a job she had briefly before becoming a full-time mom and gets it. Meanwhile, Josh is falling head over heels for Alice, who's just way cooler than girls his age. He figures she's about twenty-nine and for the first time since she was twenty-nine, or possibly ever, Alice feels that life is ripe with possibility. Unfortunately one possibility is that she's gonna get caught.

Challenging the adage that the truth will set you free, Younger is a hilarious and insightful story that proves that you're only as young as you feel.

• Favorite paragraph:
"Think of it as a performance piece. You ride it as far as you can - get yourself some new clothes, see if you can land a job - and let it end when it ends."

"And what if I do get a job? Then this so-called performance piece will be my real life."

"I thought you said if you were younger you'd take more risks and be more selfish," said Maggie, as the espresso began to percolate. "See, I knew you couldn't do it."

"I could do it."

"Then do it," said Maggie. "Go ahead. I dare you."

• Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys a good story and/or is a fan of the TV show.
• Something to know: I was astonished to see that this novel was published in 2005 - so it took them ten years to bring it to TV!
• What I would have changed: The ending wraps up a bit neatly but I still enjoyed it. It's a little different from the TV show - names and some events have been changed - but the TV show follows it pretty closely otherwise. I'm now curious to see if the ending of the TV show (whenever it does end) will reflect the book's ending, too. 
• Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
• Where can I find this book? Click here.