Publication Date: September 30, 2025
From the Sunday Times and internationally acclaimed author Milly Johnson comes her charming US debut—a witty, heartwarming tale that combines the humor and charm of 1980s rom-com Overboard with classic British flavor. Dive into this remarkable women’s fiction novel and join heroine Polly on her hilarious, touching journey to rewrite her own story.
What if it was possible to start over again? To leave everything behind, forget all that went before, and live the life you’d always dreamed of?
Polly Potter is losing the plot of her life. At work, her jerk of a boss is making her days unbearable. At home, she’s trapped in an unappreciated relationship with a man-child of a partner. She’s left completely drained by always putting others first. Amid this chaos, Polly finds solace in one place: the pages of her novel, where she shapes the world of the fearless and triumphant Sabrina Anderson, a character who embodies everything Polly wishes she could be. And thus a plan is born: Polly Potter is going to stop writing the life she wants and start living it.
Just as she makes her move—quitting her job, leaving her partner, and embarking on a road trip to start over—fate turns everything upside down. A wild turn of events leaves her far from home along the Yorkshire coast, in the hospital, waking up from a concussion, believing her name is Sabrina Anderson. She doesn’t know where she’s come from, but she feels she could heal in that seaside town, with the fresh air, seagulls, and a few kind strangers who take her into their lives. And into the heart of their joyful, boisterous Italian family restaurant—run by Teddy, the warmhearted son of her new landlady. When the restaurant is threatened, she knows she has the skills to help—and as her memory slowly returns, she must choose between Sabrina’s life or Polly’s. With her identity in question, Polly wonders: what if this new life could truly be hers? What if she could rewrite her story with a happier ending?
Previously published in the UK as The Happiest Ever After.
The Accidental Rewrite by Milly Johnson is a novel set in two small English towns about Polly, who is ready to start a new life. But is she brave enough to leave everything behind?
Polly had a hard childhood, and when things were about to get better, a horrific accident happened to her aunt and uncle, and her world spun out of control once again. Now in her thirties, she’s unhappy with her partner, their relationship, and her job. While she’s making plans to fix one of those areas, something unexpected happens in the other when she gets a backbone. Throw in a surprise by her significant other of eight years, and she’s fully determined to make a fresh start somewhere else.
When Polly arrives at her new destination, bad things continue to happen, and losing her memory is one of them. Because of this memory loss, she is forced to reinvent herself as Sabrina, thinking that’s her name.
Sabrina is befriended by a kindly woman who takes her in, introduces her to her family and friends, and gets her a job in her son’s Italian restaurant. She regains pieces of her memory, mainly about the type of job she held, as she begins to build a new life for herself.
There are a lot of emotions displayed and vivid descriptions. When Sabrina’s memory returns and her past is finally confronted, which life will she choose to live?
There is some closure and a happily ever after that is portrayed in the epilogue, which I was hoping for, but the ending seemed rushed, and the story ended abruptly.
The Accidental Rewrite is a before-and-after story of Polly/Sabrina’s life, detailing how the kindness of strangers and a soon-to-be ex-coworker altered her life on an entirely different path.
Milly Johnson comes from Yorkshire in the North of England. She is a Sunday Times bestseller and has sold millions of copies of her books across the world. Her novels, which combine romance with realistic storytelling about “ordinary” women’s extraordinary lives, champion the strength of women and celebrate love, friendship, and the joy of second chances: all of which she writes about with humor, sensitivity, and wisdom.
