Take a delightful detour with this novel by the author of The Wedding Beat and a writer of The New York Times's "Vows” column... The shortest distance between soul mates isn't always a straight line.... When Austin Gittleman first met Naomi Bloom, they were grammar school classmates and she pasted pictures of him in her Barbie Dreamhouse. Those days are long gone. Austin is a Midwestern doctor who always tries to do the right thing—even if it often turns out wrong. Naomi is a Miami pastry chef with a taste for adventure. They seem to have nothing in common. But that doesn't stop Austin from falling head over heels when they reconnect at a mutual friend's seaside wedding. Only, falling hard doesn't guarantee happily ever after, or even a second date. Tropical storms and mechanical malfunctions contribute to a series of miscommunications and missed connections that lead Austin and Naomi away from each other and back again. In The Scenic Route, life is what happens on the way to where you're going. It's unpredictable and inconvenient, but it can be pretty wonderful when you bring the right person along for the ride.