Leave it to Claire by Tracey Bateman (Book 1 in the Claire series)
Description:
Recovering from unexpected surgery, single mom and writer Claire faces some harsh nonfiction realities---including the fact that her teenaged kids hate her, and her mother thinks she has "issues." Claire's solution? An ambitious "six-steps-to-a-better-life" program. But can she fix her family and herself---or might this be a job for God?
Learn more about Tracey Bateman at her website: http://www.traceybateman.com/
My Review:
Thank goodness it's the letter "B" month for author's last names and I finally got to start this series! I've been anxious to read it and finally got time. I really like Claire, the main character of this book. First of all, she's a mom. She's a divorced mom who doesn't have it all together. Her kids act out, she forgets things that they have going on, she has funny this happen to her, and she wears her Sponge Bob pants and slippers to drive her daughter to school. Claire is a writer and she's good at it. Unfortunately she's let her writing deadlines pull her away from her family in some ways. A surgery ends up forcing her to take a look at the things that she's made priorities in her life and the pain from the divorce that continues to anger her.
Claire makes a list of resolutions and it includes things like spending more time with her kids, getting in shape, making girlfriends, joining a Bible study, etc. Some days she moves forward on her resolutions and some days she slides back. Some days she turns to God for help and falls asleep mid-prayer. She battles the knowledge that she needs to forgive her ex-husband even though she doesn't feel like it.
I am thankful to Bateman for this character and her less-than-perfect struggle between doing what she knows God wants her to do versus acting on her feelings even when she knows they aren't right. I look forward to reading the 2nd and 3rd books in the coming days.
I give it my sunny day rating!
