Mourning Glory

Grace Sorentino has never known the good life: from childhood hardships, to a marriage that began with lofty dreams and ended with all hopes shattered, Grace Sorentino has been dealt bad hand after bad hand.

Grace and Jackie, her rebellious teenage daughter, are now stuck in Florida, on the verge of poverty. Grace works as an underpaid and underappreciated cosmetician at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Jackie—when she is not spending her time with questionable boys—balances school and two jobs. Just when Grace believes that things couldn’t get any worse, she is fired after accidentally insulting a snobby customer.

However, it is a blessing in disguise. As Grace walks out the door, her boss offers her an invaluable piece of advice: don’t look for a new job, but a vulnerable old rich widower who has just lost his wife; comfort him, and once his guard is down, seduce him. The keys to success and fortune are not a nametag and uniform, but a new last name and a ring on your finger. Marriage should be the number-one priority.

At first Grace is appalled by the idea, but as rent, car payments, and credit card bills pile up, her despair turns to desperation. She begins looking through the obituaries for her last chance at a good life—after all, isn’t that something everyone deserves?