The night before her thirtieth birthday Hollywood publicist Lucy Green is waiting for her boyfriend, again, when the bartender offers to make her a special cocktail. As she takes her first drink Lucy makes a wish for a perfect birthday - perhaps on which her boyfriend will finally propose. Little does she know that that wish will upend her entire life. She wakes the next morning and soon realizes that she's not able to lie. What's a publicist, who lies pretty routinely for her very sensitive and temperamental clients, to do? As the day progresses Lucy finds that not only can she not lie to other people, she can't lie to herself anymore either. Telling herself she loves spin class? Nope. Or that she loves wearing those high heels that make her feet hurt? Not going to happen. And personal comfort aside, Lucy realizes she can't just swallow the disrespect and slights that life (and obnoxious colleagues) hand to professional women. If it isn't true to how she really feels, then it cannot be borne.
So between trying to keep her job and get the promotion she deserves and figure out just what will make herself happy, Lucy is having one heck of a birthday.
Though the idea of a protagonist suddenly realizing they're incapable of lying has been done before (Liar, Liar), Ms. James uses the setup to great effect here. The consequences of Lucy's wish allow for a deeper exploration of workplace politics and the social constraints put on women. And while there were moments where those weightier topics felt, at times, a bit didactic, Lucy's struggles felt authentic and relatable. A promising debut from an author I will be watching.