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Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook — book cover
Family & Friendship - Fiction, Love & Relationships - Fiction

Seven Year Switch

by Claire Cook
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Overview

“[A] lively, warm-hearted look at changing courses mid-life.”
—People

Just when she’s finally figured out how to manage on her own, Jill Murray’s ex-husband, Seth, is back —crashing into the man-free existence Jill and her ten-year-old daughter, Anastasia, have built so carefully. Jill’s life just hasn’t turned out quite the way she’d planned. By now, she’d hoped to be jetting around the world as a high-end cultural coach. Instead, she’s answering phones for a local travel agency and teaching cooking classes at the community center. Enter free-spirited entrepreneur Billy who hires Jill as a consultant for an upcoming business trip. Suddenly, her no-boys-allowed life is anything but.

They say that every seven years you become a completely new person, but Jill isn’t sure she’s ready to make the leap. It takes a Costa Rican getaway to help her make a choice—not so much between the two men in her life, but between the woman she is and the woman she wants to be.

Synopsis

The bestselling author of Must Love Dogs and Life's a Beach takes listeners on a rollicking getaway without leaving the comfort of home.

Publishers Weekly

Roll out your beach blanket for this sweet summer read about making mistakes and moving on. Struggling and sassy single mom Jill—left to raise three-year-old Anastasia when husband Seth runs away to join the Peace Corp—is just about over the devastating loss when Seth reappears seven years later ready to pick up where they left off. Jill wrestles with her still-raw anger and her precocious daughter's heart-breaking need for her daddy back in her life. “Honey, if you don't forgive him, it'll eat you alive,” counsels Jill's boss and best friend, Joni. For his part, “It wasn't the life we planned,” Seth explains. But Anastasia helps him remember it's the life he needs while Jill discovers letting go teaches you how to hold onto new possibilities. Cook (Must Love Dogs) creates an impossible-not-to-love cast of imperfect, funny, wistful, and wise characters. (June)

About the Author, Claire Cook

"Late starter" Claire Cook is an inspiration for aspiring writers and women in midlife transition. She wrote her first novel when she was in her 40s, sitting in her minivan at 5 AM, waiting for her daughter to emerge from swim practice! Since then, she's gone on to limn the lives of plucky middle-aged women in a series of bestselling romantic comedies like Must Love Dogs.

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Editorials

People

"[A] lively, warm-hearted look at changing courses mid- life."

Publishers Weekly

Roll out your beach blanket for this sweet summer read about making mistakes and moving on. Struggling and sassy single mom Jill—left to raise three-year-old Anastasia when husband Seth runs away to join the Peace Corp—is just about over the devastating loss when Seth reappears seven years later ready to pick up where they left off. Jill wrestles with her still-raw anger and her precocious daughter's heart-breaking need for her daddy back in her life. “Honey, if you don't forgive him, it'll eat you alive,” counsels Jill's boss and best friend, Joni. For his part, “It wasn't the life we planned,” Seth explains. But Anastasia helps him remember it's the life he needs while Jill discovers letting go teaches you how to hold onto new possibilities. Cook (Must Love Dogs) creates an impossible-not-to-love cast of imperfect, funny, wistful, and wise characters. (June)

From the Publisher

"Cook creates an impossible-not-to-love cast of imperfect, funny, wistful, and wise characters." —-Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

Another female-empowering, feel-good novel from Cook, who in this seventh outing (The Wildwater Walking Club, 2009, etc.) cautions against the return of the bad husband. Jill gets by, but just barely. Seven years ago, her husband Seth left for Africa and the Peace Corps with little more than a goodbye note, leaving Jill and their three-year-old daughter Anastasia destitute. Slowly Jill has built a modest life for herself-she owns a house (luckily the questionable neighborhood has become safely gentrified) and has a few jobs that pay the bills: offering weekly lessons in international cuisine at the community center; as a call operator at Great Girlfriend Getaways; and the occasional consulting gig in international relations. Jill is smart, but working herself up from the nothing that Seth left her with has taken its toll. Just as the present is beginning to seem pretty good, Seth returns. After seven years without a call or letter, let alone child support, Seth is hoping Jill and Anastasia will forgive him. Anastasia is thrilled to have a daddy and the gifts are great; Jill is seething. Everything becomes quickly complicated: Seth and Anastasia are developing a wonderful relationship; Seth wants to return to their marriage; then Jill and Seth sleep together, and, really, it wasn't so bad. Jill wonders if she shouldn't just forgive Seth and allow the three of them to move on. But then there's Billy, a client of Jill's who is smart and funny and grown up in ways Seth never was. What's a gal to do? Go to Costa Rica on a Girlfriend Getaway and hope a little yoga, belly dancing and girl time will sort it all out. Cook hits her marks-exploring the role of single women as they try to navigate work and family-all with good-natured humor and a little examination of what it means to be independent (it's not all fun). Hardly groundbreaking, but a beach tote couldn't ask for more.

Book Details

Published
April 5, 2011
Publisher
Hyperion
Pages
272
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781401341640

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