Once Upon a List: A Novel

Never in her wildest dreams did Clara Black imagine she'd fly to Vegas just to eat at America's biggest buffet, or that she'd be digging holes in her mother's backyard to unearth her brother's screechy plastic recorder. But if that's what it takes to get past the car accident that changed her life . . . she'll do what she must.

Eight months after losing her fiancé just before their wedding, Clara still can't seem to escape her fog of sorrow. On a visit to her childhood home, she encounters her fifth-grade time capsule and a very special bucket list written by her ten-year-old self. When she impulsively fulfills one item, Clara finds that revisiting the woman she thought she'd become may just be her way out of grief and back to life. With Milk Dud the one-eared wonder dog, her zany but loving family, and an unexpected someone from her past by her side, Clara discovers that sometimes life's unplanned moments are the sweetest, and sometimes the only bridge to your future is your past.

Robin Gold is the author of The Perfectly True Tales of a Perfect Size 12. She resides near Chicago with her husband, Greg, whom she finally found and who was well worth the wait; their baby, Archie; eleven bicycles; and a bunch of boxes in the basement that will probably never get unpacked. Odds are high that she has a Cheerio stuck somewhere on her body and doesn't know it.