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A joyfully unhinged story of money, marriage, sex, and revenge unspools when a billionaire crashes his hot-air balloon into the middle of a post-pandemic first date.
Joannie hadn't been on a date in seven years when Johnny invites Joannie and her daughter to dinner. His house is beautiful, his son is sweet, and their first kiss is, well, it's not the best, but Joannie could convince herself it was nice enough. But when Joannie's childhood crush, a summer-camp fling turned famous billionaire, crash-lands his hot-air balloon in Johnny's swimming pool, Joannie dives in.
Soon she finds herself alighting on a lost weekend with Johnny the bad kisser, Jonathan the billionaire, and Julia, his smart, stunning wife. Does Joannie want Jonathan? Does Julia want her husband? Or Joannie? Or Joannie's beautiful little girl? Does Johnny want Julia? Does Jonathan want Joannie, or Julia, or maybe, his much younger personal assistant, Vivian, who is tasked to fix it all? A tale of lust and money and lust for money, Hot Air is as astonishing as it is blisteringly funny, a delirious, delicious story for our billionaire era.
"You might find yourself trying to put this book down so it won't be over too soon. And when it is, you might start it all over again to see how the heck she did it. Has any writer made so much happen in just over 200 pages? A new Dermansky novel is like a holiday declared out of the blue." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Hilarious...It's a hoot." —Publishers Weekly
"[A] scorching satire of wacky relationships, iced with a juicy layer of saucy seduction…. Dermansky distills a potent brew from the sad consequences of power disparities among people. No arena of domestic human emotions is safe from her biting wit and analysis...It's a laugh-till-you cry experience." —Library Journal
"Dermansky's slim volume packs a punch. It's full of gimlet-eyed observations about privilege, desire, and satisfaction (or lack thereof)...Daring and wise." —Booklist
"Unapologetically and pleasurably absurd...This novel is a romp, full of the witty, razor sharp prose characteristic of all Dermansky's books. I cannot recommend this novel enough." —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist
This information about Hot Air was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marcy Dermansky is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Hurricane Girl, Very Nice, The Red Car, Bad Marie, and Twins. She has received fellowships from MacDowell and The Edward F. Albee Foundation. She lives with her daughter in Montclair, NJ.
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