Seven Year Switch

April 5, 2010
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.

May 1, 2010
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.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2010
When her husband, Seth, has an early and unique midlife crisis and leaves to join the Peace Corps, Jill is left alone to raise her three-year-old daughter, Anastasia. After shes struggled to get by for seven years, Seth returns. He claims that he left a life they hadnt planned for, but is now ready to pick up where they left off and try again. In her latest, Cook (The Wildwater Walking Club, 2009) writes another endearing story of moving on and starting over. Jill must address the anger she has so long repressed, and at the same time help her daughter incorporate the father she never knewbut desperately needsinto her life. Jill copes with the help of a cast of witty and wise friends, including her boss (and best friend), Joni. Cook tells this involving story of forgiveness and acceptance with heart, charm, and characters you cant help but root for, despite the mistakes they make.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)