Life Derailed: A Novel

A visionary AI program upends a woman’s love life and career in a moving, funny, and thought-provoking novel about connection, friendship and family, and the resilience of the human heart.

Remi Russell knows this playbook all too well. She’s seen it unfold five times over her six years at The Sophisticate, a once prominent but now struggling women’s magazine. So when the publication needs rescuing yet again, an intriguing new chief digital officer, Jason Ashbloome, arrives with a revolutionary plan beyond the usual workforce cuts. He proposes integrating MAUDE, an innovative AI software, to make the magazine more efficient. Remi fears she could lose her job to a machine, and worse, the magazine she loves might lose its humanity altogether.

As a recent widow whose heart has been as empty as her dating-app inbox, Remi takes MAUDE for a test drive and asks it to revamp her profile in the hopes of healing from the loss of her college sweetheart, who died three years earlier. Fueled by wine and bittersweet memories, she makes a plea to MAUDE (and the universe!) to help her find someone just like him. The AI-assisted update pays off big-time when she receives a message from Noah the next day. He embodies everything she’s been seeking―intelligence, humor, adventure, and altruism―and he’s ruggedly handsome to boot.

While her connection with Noah deepens, tensions at work escalate to a boiling point. Jason is determined to prove that AI can be as genuine as real people, while Remi strives to protect the very soul of The Sophisticate. But when a discovery about Noah’s true identity forces her to question everything she once believed, she must finally confront her own grief, embrace the unexpected bond she’s forming with the last person she ever expected, and find the courage to set a life derailed back on course.

Beth Merlin earned her BA from the George Washington University and her juris doctor from New York Law School. A lifelong New Yorker, Beth loves anything Broadway, romantic comedies, and a good maxi dress. When she isn’t writing, you can find her spending time with her husband, daughter, and two cavapoos, Sammy and Scarlett, at home or at their favorite vacation spot, Kiawah Island, South Carolina. She and Danielle Modafferi are the coauthors of Heart Restoration Project and The Last Phone Booth in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.merlinandmod.com.

Danielle Modafferi, a high school English teacher and pun enthusiast, earned her MFA in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University and, shortly after, founded Firefly Hill Press in 2016. By day, she helps her students discover the magic of language, and by night, she’s a writer and publisher on a mission to unleash her creativity and help others do the same. Danielle loves making memories with friends and family, traveling to faraway (and some not-so-faraway) places, and snuggling with her two dogs, Jackson and Liam, who are also, incidentally, her biggest fans. She and Beth Merlin are the coauthors of Heart Restoration Project and The Last Phone Booth in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.merlinandmod.com.