ONCE IN A LIFETIME is smart, coming-of-age chick-lit that's not all about the guy, with a vibrant '80s sensibility that contemporary women will love. In 1984, punk is rampant.

Andy Warhol rules. And 20-year-old art student Jessica is sick of all the excitement happening without her.

Hungry for a life that's just beyond her fingertips, she sets her sights on an avant-garde study abroad program in London she can't afford. Meanwhile, Jess' hometown boyfriend Drew wants to see other people if he's not exciting enough to keep her stateside.

Jess and her buddies move to a hip riverside town, trolling new wave clubs and waitressing for tuition money. Then Jess meets Whit, a hot, daredevil guitarist who crawls through her window and makes her head spin.

The girls deal with cheating waiters, mystics, a military drag queen, a Svengali bouncer, and the specter of AIDS. Before long, Jess has to decide if the men in her life will leave her as damaged as her cracked-glass mosaic art projects-and whether they'll stand in the way of that dream semester in post-punk London.

MULTI AWARD WINNER! PenCraft Award • IPPY Award • International Book Award • Paris Book Festival Award • London Book Festival Award • BookFest AwardNow with bonus material: Foreword by Rock Journalist Annie Zaleski, author Q&A, bonus short story. .