Just one look : a novel
(Book)

Eyes aren't the windows to the soul. Emails are. Cassie Woodson is adrift. After suffering an epic tumble down the corporate ladder, the only way to pay her bills is to take a thankless temp job reviewing correspondence for a large-scale fraud suit. All that daily drudgery amplifies everything her life is lacking--love, friends, stability--and leaves her too much time to fixate on the mistakes that brought her to this point. While sorting through an infinite stack of emails, something catches her eye--the tender (and totally private) exchanges between a partner at the firm, Forest Watts, and his enchanting wife, Annabelle. Cassie knows she shouldn't read them. But it's just one look. And once that door opens, she finds she can't look away. Every day, twenty floors below Forest's corner office, Cassie dissects their emails from her dingy workstation. A few clicks of her mouse and she can see every adoring word they write to each other. By peeking into their seemingly perfect life, Cassie finds a renewed purpose and happiness, reveling in their penchant for vintage wines, morning juice presses, and lavish dinner parties thrown in their stately Westchester home. There are no secrets from her. Or so she thinks. Her admiration quickly escalates into all-out mimicry. Because she wants this life more than anything. And if she plays along, maybe she can be a part of it. But when Cassie orchestrates a chance meeting with Forest in the real world and sees something that throws his marriage into question, the fantasy she's been carefully cultivating shatters. Suddenly, she doesn't simply admire Annabelle. She wants to take her place. And she's armed with the tools to make that happen.

cc,2021-07-16,JD