Synopses & Reviews
Claire Cook's beguilingly original
Ready to Fall struck a vibrant chord with its "perky take on midlife angst" (
Publishers Weekly). In
Must Love Dogs she gives us a contemporary Everywoman in a big rollicking south-of-Boston Irish family a zany novel with the flavor of Nora Ephron, Susan Isaacs, and Jeanne Ray's
Julie and Romeo.
Forty-year-old Sarah Hurlihy, a divorced preschool teacher whose life is her classroom, is about to meet her first date in more than a decade. It was the "Loves Dogs" that hooked her in the personal ad, and now she is scanning her neighborhood café for the man with a yellow rose. And find him she does, but he's the last person on earth she expects to find there...
In Must Love Dogs, hilarious missteps abound. Sarah's widowed father, Billy Hurlihy, with six adult kids, is seeing at least two women. And he and Sarah aren't the only Hurlihys with romantic challenges. Her brother Michael, for one, has a rocky marriage that Mother Teresa, his St. Bernard, just may put over the edge. With self-deprecating humor and a laugh-out-loud view of the way we live now, including shar pei/Labrador crosses and a transgenerational body-piercing experience, Must Love Dogs is a perfect beach read that melts the heartache of dating with warmth and humor.
Review
"Cook employs just enough glibness and smarty-pants humor to make this tart slice-of-the-single-life worth reading....Breezy first-person narration makes this a fast-paced, humorous diversion." Publishers Weekly
Review
"It's raining men, family, humor, and tragicomic angst in Cook's latest novel for older fans of Bridget Jones." Booklist
Review
"This utterly charming second novel by Cook is a fun read, perfect for whiling away an afternoon on the beach....[Cook] keep[s] the laughs going all the way to the not-quite-storybook-perfect ending." Library Journal
Synopsis
Ready to put her divorce behind her, Sarah Hurlihy is not sure where she's headed, or if she'll survive the journey. It takes a few wrong men and some tangles with a St. Bernard before Sarah appreciates the riotous ride she's on. Now a major motion picture starring Diane Lane (Under the Tuscan Sun) and John Cusack (High Fidelity).
Synopsis
A "funny and pitch-perfect" (Chicago Tribune) tale of thirty-something love.
About the Author
Claire Cook is also the author of Ready to Fall. A teacher of physical fitness and creative writing, she has had previous stints as a copywriter, radio continuity director, garden designer, and dance choreographer.