Click Here To Purchase The One That I Want: A Novel

Author: Allison Winn Scotch

ISBN: 978-0-307-46541-4
Publisher: Broadway Paperbacks (Random House)

What would you do if your seemingly perfect life became your worst nightmare? For Tilly Farmer, life is perfect. She married her high school sweetheart, has a career as a school counselor whose able to plan the prom and she’s trying to conceive. Though Tilly’s life has not always been perfect, her positive and cheerful outlook has made her who she is even if it’s all about to change.

When Tilly wanders into the fortune tellers tent at the town carnival, her friend turned fortune teller for the day gives her the gift of clarity. This “clarity” is something she feels Tilly has always needed.

Suddenly Tilly starts having visions that come true. Her once perfect life quickly starts to unravel forcing Tilly to focus inward to re-examine the past, re-evaluate her outlook, and discover what she truly wants from her future.


The One That I Want is a tale of life wrapped in all its drama, gifts and moments of recognition. Ms. Scotch is a wonderfully skilled writer. She instantly grabbed my attention and kept hold of it even thought my personality conflicted with Tilly’s. I wasn’t able to relate to her on a personal level, though through the writing I was able to understand her feelings and obsessive love for the prom. The novel, while unrealistic, was a fun, light weigh read. I felt bad for Tilly, who is a character with a painful past that was unable to heal properly. Due to this, I found her slightly aggravating at points. Her career choice also seemed odd to me, since I don’t quite understand how you can help counsel others when you have not grieved yourself. It seemed more an avoidance of her feelings since she could focus on everyone but herself. Because of these issues I found myself rooting for her to discover the happiness she really wanted instead of what she thinks happiness should be.


Overall this novel is full of colorful characters, drama, love, healing and clarity of self. Though it had a few minor issues, the writing is solid, the story is an absorbing work of fiction and the idea makes an interesting plot line. The novel is hard to put down and I enjoyed it for what it was. I would definitely read other novels by Ms. Scotch based of this novel. I would also recommend this title for book clubs as I feel it opens the door to discussion. The One That I want is available for the first time in paperback on June 28
th, 2011. If you haven’t yet read it, now is a great time to pick up a copy!

Click Here To Purchase The One That I Want: A Novel