All You Could Ask For

This upbeat, snappy debut novel from ESPN sports talk host Greenberg (Why My Wife Thinks I’m an Idiot) involves three iron-willed, independent-minded ladies who meet and become friends through an online support group for breast cancer patients. Samantha Royce is a 28-year-old marathon runner and TV feature producer from New York City who, while honeymooning in Hawaii, discovers that her district attorney husband Robert is already cheating on her. Brooke Biltmore, age 40 and married to Wall Street executive Scott, with two children, protects her “perfect life” by keeping her diagnosis secret. Katherine Emerson, also age 40, has just decided to resign her high-powered corporate job for the man of her dreams when she gets the bad news. Samantha’s sense of humor helps Katherine get through her chemo, while Brooke reconnects Samantha with high school crush Andrew Marks, now a successful pediatrician. Greenberg’s promising first effort, told partly in the form of message board postings, develops the lead characters well enough for its predictably feel-good conclusion to feel justified. Agent: Jacques de Spoelberch, Jacques de Spoelberch Associates. (Apr.)