There is something seductive about spinning out elaborate fantasies around the age-old question, "What if?" Glamorous new lies replace unsatisfying old ones, all problems magically find solutions, and the success that had been elusive falls easily into place. For best friends Jessie and Erin, the question gets asked--and answered--in earnest when Erin's husband leaves her and Jessie's new romance suddenly cools off. What if, asks Jessie, a freelance writer struggling to make it in Manhattan, I'd never left Arizona? What if, wonders Erin, an innkeeper still living in Willow Creek, I'd gone to New York and become a chef? When Jessie proposes they trade places for six months, their unconventional escape allows both women to find out if the proverbial grass really is greener. Creating strong, resourceful heroines is what Goudge does best, and both loyal fans and new readers alike will be thoroughly captivated by the unique adventure Jessie and Erin embark upon, and what they discover by journey's end. Carol Haggas

Review

"Eileen Goudge writes like a house on fire, creating characters you come to love and hate to leave."

-- Nora Roberts

Eileen Goudge won a legion of devoted fans with novels such as GARDEN OF LIES and ONE LAST DANCE. Now this immensely gifted author returns with a novel that asks the question: Can you ever go home again? Erin and Jessica were best friends growing up in small-town Arizona. Both were smart, ambitious, and seduced by the siren call of the big city. Now Erin is back in her hometown running an inn, while secretly envying Jessica's exciting life as a magazine journalist in New York City. But fate is about to intervene again, sending Jessica back to Arizona, where she must convince Erin to trade places with her for six months. It's an opportunity for Jessica to reconcile with her estranged family. For Erin, the stakes are even higher: With her husband about to leave and her teenage daughter caught in the middle, Erin jumps at the chance to live her best friend's life. What neither can foresee is the dramatic and irreversible consequences it will have on both their lives. Is the grass really greener on someone else's lawn? Can a longtime friendship survive the changes that time and distance inevitably bring? Filled with the author's trademark passion, pathos, and conflict, OTHERWISE ENGAGED is a page-turner certain to garner Goudge an even wider readership.