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Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Jennifer Weiner, this smart and witty debut novel follows Ramona through the forty-eight hours after her life has been upended by the discovery of her husband’s affair and an approaching Category Four hurricane.

Ramona’s got a bratty boss, a toddler teetering through toilet training, a critical mom who doesn’t mind sharing, and oops—a cheating husband. That’s how a Category Four hurricane bearing down on her life in Savannah becomes just another item on her to-do list. In the next forty-eight hours she’ll add a neighborhood child and the class guinea pig named Clarence Thomas to her entourage as she struggles to evacuate town.

Ignoring the persistent glow of her minivan’s check engine light, Ramona navigates police check points, bathroom emergencies, demands from her boss, and torrential downpours while fielding calls and apology texts from her cheating husband and longing for the days when her life was like a Prince song, full of sexy creativity and joy.

Thoroughly entertaining and completely relatable, None of This Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive is the hilarious, heartwarming story of a woman up to her elbows in calamities and about to drive off the brink of the rest of her life.

Don't just take our word for it...

“It’s not often you read a book that makes you laugh and makes your heart pound with excitement but Carolyn Prusa’s debut does just that. Her heroine Ramona uses humor and her love for pop star Prince to navigate dueling crises in her life and takes a surprisingly poignant journey along the way.”
– Laurie Gelman, author of Smells Like Tween Spirit and Class Mom

“Both insightful and messy in the most relatable way, None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive will have you cackling, nodding in agreement, and rooting hard for Ramona as she battles various storms — literal and figurative.”
– Laura Hankin, author of A Special Place for Women and Happy and You Know It

“A keenly observant, fast-paced comedy that illustrates just how tough it can be – as Prince would say – ‘to get through this thing called life.’ Finding humor in heartbreak, Prusa presents a strong-willed heroine who copes with one indignity after another, from the acutely embarrassing to the brutally life-changing, all while dodging in and out of the path of an oncoming hurricane.”
– Amy Poeppel, author of Musical Chairs

Taste the very first page

October 5, 2016
11:12 a.m.

“I’m not worried,” my mother says. “Ramona. There’s no need to panic.”

When I pull down the slats of the blinds in the break room, I see a pale blue sky over the roofs of the Victorian District. Worried isn’t the word I’d pick, and I wouldn’t use panic, either. It’s more like, one more thing.

“I just saw they’re evacuating in South Carolina,” I tell her.

“Well,” she says. “That seems premature.”

“Maybe. But they’re usually in the path, so.”

“What does Desmond think?”

“He’s nervous. He says Savannah has been lucky so far but this one could be major.”

“Des is nervous. Really?”

Neither my mother nor I come from Savannah. We depend on my husband’s insider knowledge for situations like these…

December 2022