A major scandal ensnares a woman’s second marriage in a media frenzy in this debut memoir.

Nason writes that one morning in 1998, a number of reporters were standing outside her home in Portland, Oregon, wanting answers regarding an affair between her husband of seven years and his former student, who’d recently become national news. This fictionalized memoir—in which the author notes that she’s changed the names of the central figures—details the journey to that moment. “I met my second husband on the same day I filed to divorce my first,” she writes; that marriage, which lasted less than a year, ended shortly after a rapist broke into the couple’s bedroom in Venice, California, and assaulted the pregnant author. Later, in 1988, 30-something Nason was a single mom in Culver City; on the day she filed for divorce, she met charming, 23-year-old Charlie. They quickly became a couple; Charlie secured a job as technical theater director for Beverly Hills High School, while Nason continued working for a major art gallery. Some of Charlie’s students, including a “bubbly,” “giggly,” and “boisterous” teenage girl named Mallory, frequently gathered at their house on the weekends. Three years and 10 proposals later, Nason finally agreed to marry Charlie. In 1994, the family, including the couple’s toddler son, moved to Portland, and so did Mallory, who attended Lewis & Clark College; later, after taking a position in Washington, D.C., the young woman became part of a headline-making scandal. Overall, this is an edgy, poignant, and compelling tale of betrayals and gaslighting, but also a fine story of healing and of rediscovering self-confidence. There’s a rhythmic cadence to the prose, which offers vividly detailed local imagery, as when the author describes a school “sheltered by towering Douglas firs, huge maples, and elm, all Crayola colors—goldenrod, burnt orange and sienna brown.” Chapter endings often contain pithy declarative commentaries that keep pages turning, and Nason communicates satisfying fortitude in times of distress, as well as personal details, such as stocking up on cheap dinnerware to throw against the family’s garage to relieve her anger.

An often engrossing personal drama.