Claire Knows Best

Tracey Bateman
Hachette Book Group (2006)
ISBN 0446696054
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (6/06)

Claire Everett, divorced mother of four and a writer of popular romance novels, finds her life reeling out of control.  She disgraces herself in church by laughing at the illness of another congregant, a tornado sends a tree crashing through her house, her 16-year-old daughter is sneaking out of the house at night, her steady boyfriend rethinks his career choice and moves to another state for training and her ex-husband’s new wife is pregnant and depending on Claire to help her get through it. If that isn’t enough to deal with, Claire’s publishing company decides to switch to another genre and won’t sign a new contract with her. 

As the tensions in Claire’s life mount, she starts getting panic attacks that are bad enough to make her seek help from a counselor and the advice she receives is about what you would expect from someone you hire sight unseen, with no reference check. 

Claire struggles to bring order back to her life at the same time as she is preparing a book proposal for her agent to shop to other publishing companies and answering the siren call of a new book that is fomenting within her.  Along the way she makes some new friends and rethinks her relationships with others in her life, bringing her two more wonderful friends.

Tracey Bateman has written a wonderful story, showing how Christians cope with the modern world without preaching to the reader.

This was a delightful book.  I sat down and read it straight through and enjoyed it so much that I went online and bought the first book in the series, “Leave It To Claire.”  

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