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Leave It to Claire

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Leave It to Claire

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Overview

A modern-day single mother creates a to-do list to fix the mess she's made of her life. Will she realize the only way to truly grow is to let go of her own plans and listen to God?

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446558969
Publisher:	FaithWords
Publication date:	05/30/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	609 KB

About the Author

Tracey Bateman published her first novel in 2000 and has been busy ever since. She became a member of American Christian Fiction Writers in the early months of its inception in 2000 and served as president for the past year. She lives with her husband and four children in Lebanon, Missouri. You can visit her Web site at www.traceybateman.com.

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Editorial Reviews

In this lighthearted, inspirational "mom lit" offering, Bateman (The Color of the Soul) introduces readers to Claire, a single mom and relatively successful author of Christian romance novels, whose life is beginning to come apart. Claire's doctor tells her she needs wrist surgery, which will prevent her working for six weeks. One son is writing suggestive poetry about the secretary at school, while another has started wearing black and hanging out with the skateboarding crowd. Her 16-year-old daughter resents her, and her mother is moving away. On top of that, her ex-husband and his wife, Darcy, have become Christians and started regularly attending her church, and it appears that beautiful, thin Darcy would actually like to be Claire's friend. Claire puts together a to-do list with things like "Go to church more," "Reconnect with my children" and "Exercise-maybe" and sets out to change her life. But will she be able to forgive her ex? And what will become of her friendship with one son's good-looking male teacher? Bateman's writing is simple and at times clich d, but she delves into difficult topics while managing to keep things light. Claire is far from an ideal Christian-she's a regular person who struggles and keeps trying. Readers will enjoy and relate to her, and the plot, if predictable, will pull them along. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

This first in a planned series from Warner's Christian imprint features Claire Everett as she improves her life (with the help of God). Bateman's heroine is a bitter pill of a woman, though one suspects it was not the author's intention to make her appear so. Claire has worked hard in the years since her divorce. She's raising four children and writing Christian romance novels to great success. When her busy schedule comes to a halt as she recuperates from surgery for carpal tunnel, Claire uses this down time to work on herself-lose some weight, reconnect with her kids, go to church more often, find some flesh-and-bone friends, as opposed to those who live online. She achieves these goals by novel's end, but her real accomplishment is forgiving her once unfaithful ex-husband Dr. Rick. Now married to the young, beautiful Darcy, Rick is the unmentionable in Claire's life, and her barely repressed anger is affecting her children. Young Shawn has been writing lewd poems honoring the school secretary (though Claire blames the secretary's prominent cleavage) and now the family is in counseling. Meanwhile, Shawn's teacher Greg Lewis may just be the good man Claire has been praying for. Bateman uses all the touchstones of contemporary evangelical Christian pop-culture, serving to make Claire a caricature instead of a character. In fact, if one were to create a parody of a Thomas Kincaid-loving, Wal-Mart shopping, The Purpose-Driven Life-reading woman, Claire would be it. Sadly intolerant for a work of Christian literature (her Jewish counselor is "okay" because he's converted, she applauds her son's eventual acceptance of conformity because he looked like a "freak" with a fake lip ring), thenovel's worst sin is still its aching predictability. Plodding Christian fare limited to its target audience.

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