PUSHING 30
A smart, funny novel about finding Mr. Right when everything is going wrong.
Meet Ellie Winters. She’s under a little pressure…
“The one thing you should know about me is this: I’m the consummate Good Girl.”
Ellie Winters is dependable and loyal and has a near-phobic aversion to conflict. But as her thirtieth birthday looms ever closer, she starts to feel like she’s lost the instruction manual to her life. She has just broken up with her boring boyfriend, despises her job, and is the last of her high school friends to remain single. Worse, her dysfunctional family is driving her nuts, and she’s somehow become enslaved to her demanding pet pug Sally, who she suspects is the reincarnation of Pol Pot.
One night, after a botched attempt to color her hair at home, Ellie rushes to the drugstore for emergency bleach, Sally in tow. Sally is accosted by a smitten canine admirer…but it’s the dog’s owner who captures Ellie’s attention. Television news anchor Ted Langston is witty, intriguing, and sexy. The only catch? He’s twice her age—and the only man on the planet who isn’t interested in dating a younger woman. And no one, from Ellie’s best friends to Ted’s ex-wife, wants to see them get together.
This novel asks the question whether a Good Girl can find her happily-ever-after with the one man who’s so wrong for her, he’s perfect.
“Feisty, poignant, sexy, and packed with delicious comedy.”—Sue Margolis, author of Gucci Gucci Coo
About the Author
Whitney Gaskell grew up in Syracuse, New York. A graduate of Tulane Law School, she worked for several years as a reluctant lawyer before writing her first novel, Pushing 30, followed by True Love (And Other Lies) and She, Myself & I. She lives in Stuart, Florida, with her husband and son, and is at work on her fifth novel. You can visit her website and read her blog at www.whitneygaskell.com.
Also by Whitney Gaskell
Pushing 30
True Love (And Other Lies)
She, Myself & I
TESTING KATE
A Bantam Book / November 2006
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
Copyright © 2006 by Whitney Gaskell
Title page art by Karin Batten
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gaskell, Whitney.
Testing kate / Whitney Gaskell.
p. cm.
1. Young women—Louisiana—New Orleans—Fiction. 2. Self-actualization (Psychology)—Fiction. 3. New Orleans (La.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3607.A7854 T47 2006
813.'6 22 2006042996
www.bantamdell.com
eISBN: 978-0-553-90309-6
v3.0