Reviewer: Amy Lignor
Title: The Other Mothers’ Club
Author: Samantha Baker
Publisher: Avon
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-184035-7
Release Date: June 2010
Genre/Sub-genre: Women's Fiction
Year/Setting: Present day, England
Overall Rating: 3.5
Sexual Content Rating: Subtle/Sensual
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: Mild/Moderate
Violent Content Rating: None/Negligible
Samantha's Website/Blog: www.sambaker.co.uk
Dear Readers:
I have to say this is certainly a new take on the whole evil, wicked stepmother story. In fact, this is the first novel where a writer really explains how hard it is to join a family, and try to become a part of a world where the memories of the wife/mother who is now gone still echo in every corner.
Caroline Newsome was a stunning, perfect blonde woman who had a stellar career and created three perfect cherub-faced children with her husband. She’s gone now, from cancer. Eve is a young woman – slightly freckly, fuzzy-haired brunette – who met Ian (Caroline’s husband) when she was doing an interview with him for the magazine she works for. She’d been speaking to him about his wife’s book that would be released to the masses explaining her fight against cancer. After their first meeting, over time, Ian and Eve spent a great deal of time together, and fell in love. What the hardest thing in the world to do, however, is to introduce Eve to Ian’s children. Hannah, especially; Hannah is the oldest at thirteen (going on thirty) and certainly remembers everything about her mother. She wants no part of Eve intruding on their lives, and the thin line that Eve has to walk with her is frightening. There’s also Sophie, whose favorite color is pink, and who likes Eve right off the bat, as well as five-year-old Alfie, who barely remembers his mother and likes Eve as long as she’ll play Venom to his Spiderman.
The heaviness weighing Eve down comes from the fact that, no matter what she seems to do, she can’t get comfortable with the "ghost" of a mom who is now gone. She realizes that she holds no disciplinary "authority" with these kids, and most of the time wants to head for the hills and leave her love for Ian behind.
Eve’s best friend is Clare. Clare is a single mom who works her behind off for a teenage daughter who wants what her friends have. She wants to be able to go on vacations and buy clothes and shoes, etc. Basically, all she does is fight with the mother who truly adores her and gave up her future in order to have and raise her beloved child. Clare’s sister is Lucy. Lucy works at The Comedy Club, but she’s put her stand-up career on hold because of the man she’s fallen head over heels for. The one thing that also came with her love is Rosie – his daughter. Rosie and Lucy have found a way to be friends, and she soon gets together with Eve to try and help her smash through the "step monster" wall.
Soon, they meet up with Melanie. Melanie was dumped by a man who wanted no kids, and then married a model who was young enough to be his daughter and proceeded to have a child with her. Then comes Mandy; Mandy was married for twenty years before getting a divorce. She has three teenagers and is now dating a man with two kids of his own. Each of these women have a different background – and yet they all meet up with each other and soon form their very own club, where they can talk about their situations and rely on each other for support.
Although the book was humorous, it did "slow down" in certain spots. The one storyline that I really liked was Clare. This is the woman who had my heart the second she was introduced. As a single mom she had worked her behind off for her child when, out of nowhere, the father reappears after years of never calling to say that he wants to see HIS daughter. This is the one thing that I seriously can’t stand, and I agreed with Clare completely when she got upset. This is a good read for anyone who is going through the twists and turns of falling in love with a "ready-made" family unit.
Until next time,
Amy
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