Milkrun [Paperback]

Sarah Mlynowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2008

Must think happy thoughts. Julie Andrews dancing. Cadbury's chocolate Easter eggs. But no amount of positive thinking changes the fact that Jeremy—the man of my dreams, the man I would marry, the man who should spend his whole life worshipping me and lavishing me with kisses—went to Thailand to find himself.

Obviously I'm not as cute and witty as I thought I was, since while I've been sitting around every weekend, he's been sleeping with half of Thailand. And then he found Someone Else. That someone not being me.

I have been pathetic.

But now I will date. I will become the queen of dating. I will forget all about him.

Single in Boston, that's me. But not for long…!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For readers who have not yet tired of the Bridget Jones genre, this entertaining debut represents it with both humor and substance. Twenty-five-year-old Jackie Norris lives in Boston and has been on her own since receiving a breakup e-mail from her boyfriend, Jeremy, who traveled to Thailand to "find himself." Adhering to the first of her five steps of breakup recovery, Jackie slips on a new pair of knee-high black leather boots and jumps back into the dating scene. The men she encounters are, much to the dismay of any female reader, utterly recognizable: the hunk with groping hands, the sensitive poet who can't afford to move out of his ex-girlfriend's apartment and the guy whose sexual performance is practically over before it begins ("Four minutes is a music video. Four minutes should not be sex"). But in spite of it all, Jackie maintains a refreshing level of optimism. Mlynowski is acutely aware of the plight of the 20-something single woman she offers funny dialogue and several slices of reality, including a chapter of e-mails sent by Jackie's circle of friends as they attempt to decipher the male psyche. Any woman who's ever been bored by an unfulfilling job (Jackie copyedits romance novels), jealous of a roommate who has it all together (Jackie's roommate has a full-time boyfriend and regularly cleans her bathroom) or thoroughly perplexed by boy-speak will find something to enjoy here. Mlynowski may not be able to provide all the solutions, but she certainly makes the problems fun.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Jackie Norris' jaw drops when she gets an e-mail from her boyfriend, Jeremy, telling her that he's seeing someone else in Thailand, where he has gone to "find himself." A harried 24-year-old copyeditor at a romance publisher, Jackie decides to be proactive and speed up the process of getting over Jeremy by dating other men. But the men she meets are disappointing: a handsome stud she went to high school with is both rude and a lousy kisser, and it turns out that the good-looking intellectual is still living with his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Jackie's roommate, Sam, separates from her longtime boyfriend and goes from being a devoted girlfriend to single girl extraordinaire, making Jackie envious. The only good guy in Jackie's life seems to be Jeremy's friend Andrew, but just as Jackie starts to fall for him, Jeremy reenters her life. Though at times annoyingly neurotic, Jackie is a likable heroine, and twentysomething singles will relate to her frustrating search for love in a big city. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 345 pages
• Publisher: Mira; Original edition (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778327094
• ISBN-13: 978-0778327097
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (179 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,056,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sarah is the author of MILKRUN, FISHBOWL, AS SEEN ON TV, MONKEY BUSINESS and ME VS ME for Red Dress Ink, GIMME A CALL, BRAS & BROOMSTICKS, FROGS & FRENCH KISSES, SPELLS & SLEEPING BAGS and PARTIES & POTIONS for Random House, and TEN THINGS WE DID (AND PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HAVE) and HOW TO BE BAD (along with E.Lockhart and Lauren Myracle) for HarperTeen. TEN THINGS WE DID (AND PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HAVE) will be out this June. Sarah has been featured in the short story collections, AMERICAN GIRLS ABOUT TOWN, SIXTEEN: STORIES ABOUT THAT SWEET AND BITTER BIRTHDAY, 21 PROMS, FIRST KISS (THEN TELL) and FIREWORKS. Sarah also co-edited the bestselling chick-lit collections GIRLS' NIGHT IN and GIRLS' NIGHT OUT and co-wrote the first ever guide to writing chick lit, SEE JANE WRITE.

Sarah's books have been translated into twenty-one languages and optioned to Hollywood. She was born in Montreal but now lives and writes in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All Aboard the Milkrun!!, April 15, 2002

By 

Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Milkrun (Paperback)

If you are in the mood for a quick, light, refreshing read, then Milkrun is for you. I recently finished a very lengthy, heavy book, so reading Milkrun was like a breath of fresh air for me. A simple tale about a girl getting dumped and her determination to get over it quick -- something a lot of us can relate to.

Twenty-four-year-old Jackie Norris just got the boot in the tackiest way -- via e-mail. Her boyfriend, Jeremy, has been off "finding himself" in Thailand -- in the arms of someone else. Jackie is devastated but will not let it get her down as she swears to get back in the dating game. Meanwhile, Jackie's roommate, Samantha, is fed-up with Marc, her no-commitment boyfriend of five years. So she issues the ultimatum -- and the response wasn't quite what she was expecting.

Told with a funny, wise-cracking sense of humor, Milkrun is definitely a winner. Not a deep-meaning dating drama by any means, but there are many situations in the story that are highly relateable, and readers will most likely recognize a part of Jackie in themselves. I urge all readers who want an easy, no-frills read to pick this book up and enjoy. The perfect in-between-books book or for a lazy day on the porch swing.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre at best, February 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Milkrun (Paperback)

I bought this book after reading the many rave reviews on here about it. As a fan of the Bridget Jones type of genre, I thought the premise for this story sounded cute and like a quick, fun read. It was neither of these things. I found it very difficult to identify with the main character or to care about what happened to her. Halfway through the book, I started rooting for the boyfriend who had dumped her. Near the end, I was hoping that any nice guy would steer clear of her. And speaking of the ending, I won't give anything away here except to say that the book ended very abruptly in my opinion with no satisfying resolution. I was very disappointed in the whole story. One final thing I found highly annoying were the numerous mistakes throughout the book - misspellings, words wrongly used, etc. (for example, "he motioned for her to sit on the coach [instead of couch]). The publisher needs to get some decent proofreaders. This is one of the most disappointing books I have read in this genre. For anyone looking for some great ones, I highly recommend the Bridget Jones books (both the original and the sequel) and also the excellent books by Sophie Kinsella (Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan).

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Sex in the City" for the young twenty-something generation!, December 24, 2001

By 

Jaime Rich (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milkrun (Paperback)

There isn't a character or situation in Sarah Mlynowski's novel Milkrun that I couldn't relate to in my personal life. In fact, the book reads like it was torn from the pages of my own diary, probably similar to every other woman dating today. The witty, twenty-something protagonist, Jackie Norris, is on the rebound from her boyfriend, "Jilting Jeremy," who left her on an excursion to Thailand in order to "find himself." Surrounded by her college friends--Natalie, the Boston socialite, and Wendy, her best friend and workaholic investment banker in New York--and her roommate--Sam, whose own relationships leaves her both jealous and nauseous--Jackie discloses her most personal details in Milkrun on her search to find a boyfriend and deal with the rejected feelings left by the previous one. Like an episode of "Sex in the City" or a re-run of "Friends," we tag along on her series of dates with former high-school hunk Jonathan Gradinger, Stripe-boy Damon, and Tim, the Saint and brother of co-worker Julie. Jackie works as an editor at Cupid, publishing home to the romance novels, and in between time spent there avoiding fellow editor and punctuation-obsessed Helen, she attempts to earn the next belt in her Tae Kwon Do class and ventures out on a weekly basis with Natalie and friends to her favorite bar, Orgasm, occasionally running into Andrew, Jeremy's best friend. Then, of course, there's her family and extended family and dealing with the fact she's dating a man with the same name as her father. I see myself in Jackie; every single near college-aged girl has dated and been hurt by a Jeremy; we all try to please but end up dreading dealing with the families; and we all lean on our friends to make it through the tough times. I recommend this book because it makes you feel normal about your own life, smile at your own bad dating experiences and look forward to an ending like the novel itself.