Publication Date: November 4, 2025
This book begins where most love stories leave off: at the beginning of real life.
I WANTED TO BE WONDERFUL follows the lives of two women in their first years of marriage and motherhood. One is a fictional character trying to live the happily—ever—after many imagine for themselves, and the second woman is inspired by the author herself, relating the most intimate moments of her life.
Both couples start their marriages full of idyllic happiness, but as the stressors of everyday life seep into their daily lives, that spark of young love begins to dim.
In trenchant, thoughtful prose, Lihi Lapid tells a braided story of women struggling to live up to modern pressures; about shattered dreams; and about finding the strength to gather up the pieces and to learn to smile again.
I Wanted To Be Wonderful has got to be the most deeply truthful account of being a wife and mother ever written. The structures of both the semi-autobiographical and the fairy-tale versions are the work of a creative genius in the hands of Lihi Lapid.
Starting as a young couple, only dreams and possibilities lay ahead. But women know, all the while thinking they each will be different, that these dreams and possibilities will come with sacrifices. This novel creates two storylines.
Two women begin their life journey. One is a news photographer and the other a royal princess. Both feel a strong pull to do “the most important thing”; to become a mother.
As each mother returns home with a newborn, their worlds shift. But expectations of happiness and motherly instinct immediately juxtapose the confusion and exhaustion.
Each is thankful they have a husband so invested in his child. The possibilities of happily ever after are within reach!
But the story, the details, and the emotions of each woman are deeply examined as they navigate doing what they imagine is best for their child. But it nearly brings each woman to a breakdown. And as for the men in their lives? They are working to provide and slaying dragons, shouldn’t that be enough?
Mothers want to surpass the myth that they can do it all. They want it all to be wonderful, at whatever expense they need to pay.
The truth that lies within the pages of I Wanted To Be Wonderful are words that most women have never allowed themselves to think.
Lihi Lapid is one of Israel’s most beloved voices—a bestselling novelist, acclaimed journalist, and passionate speaker on contemporary women’s issues and inclusion. She is the author of the novels On Her Own and Secrets from Within, as well as a cookbook, a children’s book, and an essay collection. She lives with her husband, Yair Lapid, the former Prime Minister of Israel. They and their children live in Tel Aviv.
