The Overdue Life of Amy Byler

An Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller, and a Goodreads Choice Award finalist.

"A laugh-out-loud funny, pitch-perfect novel that will have readers rooting for this unlikely, relatable, and totally lovable heroine, The Overdue Life of Amy Byler is the ultimate escape--and will leave moms everywhere questioning whether it isn't time for a #momspringa of their own." --New York Journal of Books

Overworked and underappreciated, single mom Amy Byler needs a break. So when the guilt-ridden husband who abandoned her shows up and offers to take care of their kids for the summer, she accepts his offer and escapes rural Pennsylvania for New York City.

Usually grounded and mild mannered, Amy finally lets her hair down in the city that never sleeps. She discovers a life filled with culture, sophistication, and--with a little encouragement from her friends--a few blind dates. When one man in particular makes quick work of Amy's heart, she risks losing herself completely in the unexpected escape, and as the summer comes to an end, Amy realizes too late that she must make an impossible decision: stay in this exciting new chapter of her life, or return to the life she left behind.

But before she can choose, a crisis forces the two worlds together, and Amy must stare down a future where she could lose both sides of herself, and every dream she's ever nurtured, in the beat of a heart.

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Published May 1, 2019

332 pages

Average rating: 6.62

105 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

AbbeyLileTaylor
Aug 29, 2023
10/10 stars
As someone who has spent the last 7 years as a SAHM and now with a little one at home and one at school, THIS BOOK SPOKE TO ME!!

I cannot recommend this highly enough! Go and buy yourself a copy right now...you'll thank me later.
Pherfer
Mar 25, 2025
6/10 stars
Frothy fantasy about abandoned wife and mother who gets a magazine makeover in Manhattan. Great summer beach read, like the proverbial Chinese take out, an hour later you are hungry for something else and have forgotten what you have read.
nora_grimes
Jan 23, 2025
4/10 stars
I’m not a mother, have no interest in being one ... this book was not for me.
margardenlady
Dec 27, 2023
10/10 stars
Fun read. Lots of witty dialogue about books and parenting. Amy’ husband left her with two kids and a mortgage 3 yrs ago. Now he wants to come back and be with the kids. Amy heads to NYC where a college friend lives. What was intended to be a week, including a library conference becomes a makeover and the whole summer. It’s lovely to watch Amy find herself again. You can’t help but root for her.
melbeesue
Oct 16, 2023
4/10 stars
This book isn't my typical type of genre. I call this women's fiction, where we are all meant to cheer on the "heroine" who is embracing her new found freedom after years of being a single parent after her husband simply walked away. Her soon-to-be ex-husband returns and offers to take care of the kids for the summer and gives her an opportunity for a much needed break.

I mostly mentally cheered her on, but morally I couldn't embrace all of her ideals especially the one night stand idea of her "momspringa" which was basically her take on living wild and free, ignoring the consequences.

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