Tuesday TBR: Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

May 20, 2025

It’s Tuesday, so let’s check out a book on my TBR! This week it’s Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley.

From the publisher:

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part” all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.

Colleen Oakley is a new-to-me author and this is the first book of hers that I’ve heard about. Of course it grabbed my attention right away because it takes place on the Pacific Coast. My husband and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage this week; over the weekend we made dinner reservations. Let’s hope our dinner goes better than Jane and Dan’s! I also just love that the situation seems familiar to Dan. Did he read her book? I need to know!

On her website, Colleen Oakley has reading group guides for her books and a list of her favorite books! We are both Ann Patchett, Ariel Lawhon, Jojo Moyes, and Maria Semple fans.

Jane and Dan at the End of the World was published in March this year.