She's offbeat, off balance, and at times off-the-wall, a late-thirties mother of two living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and trying to figure out who she is now that her husband has left her. He's a rat, anyway, and currently attends Sex Addicts Anonymous. He still comes by the house, though, as do her hippie, macrobiotic mother; her feisty, alcoholic best friend; her God-fearing grandmother; and that Perfect Guy, the one with the beatific son who plays with her daughter, the one who happens to have a winning smile, wild black hair, a professorship at Harvard--and (drats ) a gorgeous doctor girlfriend.
Told in short takes that perfectly mimic the frantic nature of our busy lives, " Hot and Bothered" follows its heroine through the streets of Cambridge, where she spends far too much time staring into space and sipping mocha lattes with extra whipped cream; to church, where she prays for a little salvation; to Alaska, where she believes a rugged outdoorsman might just "be" that salvation; and to Cape Cod, where, in a little house by the sea, she might finally see the light. Annie Downey has written an updated Cinderella story for all single moms.