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Claire Everett’s been divorced for five years, but everyday her ex-husband visits her in the bitterness she nurses towards him and his sweet new wife. Claire is a Christian romance writer and all that typing has played havoc with her wrists. Facing surgery isn’t so bad, but then her mom, whom has stuck closer than a friend, is moving to Texas to live with Claire’s brother and his family. Claire feels happy for her mom, but deserted, too. What is she going to do now? Alone. Lonely. But not desperate.
Claire’s children are wonderfully real. From the little one’s obsession with Xbox, to the daughter’s attempt at getting around the family rules regarding clothes. Tommy wants desperately to be a skater, and Shawn, well, he’s discovered the curves in the school secretary and pens some little ditties about his observations. Claire and her ex have different ideas about discipline and the result is not what they had expected or wanted.
To make things worse, Claire’s ex and his wife become Christians and join her church. It’s difficult to feel poorly about that: every good Christians wants others to discover the joy of that, too. Yet, Claire feels slightly put out. There are lots of churches after all, why’d he have to pick hers? And, as Claire works on these problems, life continues to spin around her, leaving piles of ‘stuff to be dealt with later’. Claire develops a Six steps to a better life strategy and it’s a delight to watch her tackle her issues, one more time.
Leave it To Claire hit me on so many levels but the most outstanding is the way this story is told. Unlike the cookie cutter ‘lits’ that seem to be hitting bookshelves, author Tracey Bateman, manages to tell a real story, with real characters in real life problems. Claire has bad thoughts, she gets mad, and she’s fighting weight troubles, loneliness, almost success and looking for Mr. Right-again. The story is smooth and compelling and I read it in one night. Up till 2am.
If you like the intimacy of the lit genre but you want a different sort of warm, fun, moving story, then you want to read Leave It to Claire.
Leave it to Claire earns the Reviewers Choice award.
Reviewed by Linda Mae Baldwin
for The Road to Romance
January 22, 2006
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