What would you do if you went to bed ugly, fat, and depressed and woke up the next morning in the body of a goddess?
This is exactly the miracle that befalls Allison Penny, who has spent most of her twenty-two years on this earth in a serious slump (to say the least).

Having long since given up on her life, Allison is stuck in an apartment with an evil sexpot roommate, trapped in a dysfunctional relationship with her alcoholic mother, and miserably working as a cleaning lady to pay the bills. Now, of course, Allison wastes no time in test-driving her new looks, and she experiences all of the power and fun that come with being gorgeous. Men and modeling agencies are falling all over her, and she finally has the con?dence to live her life without trying to disappear into the background. But even for the beautiful people, things can get complicated, and soon Allison finds herself with a whole new set of problems.

Darkly hilarious, engaging, and full of surprises, Waking Beauty is a modern-day fairy tale with an all-too-real moral: No matter how much we hate to admit it, it’s what’s on the outside that counts.

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“An apt, bitchy, darkly funny fairy tale for the new millennium.”—Darcy Cosper, author of Wedding Season

“Waking Beauty flaunts what I love most in modern humor: wit that is razor-sharp, rapid-fire, and, best of all, wonderfully mean.”—Leslie Stella, author of The Easy Hour

“What a great book! This isn’t chick lit; it’s human lit about a fantasy everyone has had: How different would life be if I woke up one day flawlessly gorgeous? The narrator is a sarcastic genius with a black outlook on life that only deepens when the world begins to kiss her formerly repulsive, now-perfect ass.”—Poppy Z. Brite, author of Liquor

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ELYSE FRIEDMAN is the author of Then Again. She lives in Toronto.

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