Hilary Winston’s My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me: And Other Stories I Shouldn’t Share with Acquaintances, Coworkers, Taxi Drivers, Assistants, Job Interviewers…and Ex/Current/Future Boyfriends But Have

By Stephanie Monahan

Hilary Winston knows her ex-boyfriend, Kyle, wrote a book. It’s his first novel, the book he dreamed about, the one he feared he’d never write. What she doesn’t know is that his so-called work of fiction is actually based on their relationship and she has a starring role ~ as the “fat-assed” girlfriend. Humiliated and enraged, she does what any self-respecting spurned writer (she’s worked on shows like “My Name is Earl” and “Community”) would do ~ she writes a book of her own.

In My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me: And Other Stories I Shouldn’t Share with Acquaintances, Coworkers, Taxi Drivers, Assistants, Job Interviewers…and Ex/Current/Future Boyfriends But Have, Winston chronicles not only her ill-fated relationship with Kyle, but also the laundry list of her dating mishaps from high school to present day. There’s the guy who insists on a break-up exit interview, the bartender who charms her until she watches a certain Mike Myers movie and realizes where he gets all of his jokes and ~ my favorite ~ an obsessed mailman who responds to her rejection by opening her mail and reading her magazines.

While Kyle’s book hides behind a fiction label, Winston revels in exposing all the intimate details of her relationships. She often turns the microscope on herself, like when she admits to using a co-worker because she’s afraid of being alone. And then there are the thoughts running through her head during her first kiss: “Will I ever go to Hawaii? Do I floss enough? Will I get cancer?”

Most of Winston’s stories are light, but there’s a melancholy undertone that strings them all together. Each failed relationship circles back to Kyle, the only one she’s ever really loved. She recounts their first date: “I thought, ‘Please let this be the one.’ He thought, ‘Could her ass possibly be that fat?’ ~ or so I found out later.” Ouch.

There are sensitive stories and raunchy stories. There’s also online dating with Vanilla Ice’s back-up singer, cat diabetes, past life regressions, a horrified psychic, and the story that “…isn’t a story any ex-boyfriend EVER wants to hear.” And that’s the one, of course, that Winston tells Kyle the last time they see each other. So while her ex may have had the first word, Winston ~ in life and in this book ~ gets the last laugh.

My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me...is available at Barnes and Noble, amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.