The Wildwater Walking Club

May 4, 2009
The lives of a suddenly jobless corporate executive, a teacher navigating a difficult relationship with her daughter and a young lavender farmer intertwine in Cook's straightforward novel. When a generous compensation package gives Noreen "Nora" Kelly-whose career defined her identity-18 months salary to forge a new path, she realizes she has little in common with her former work companions and strikes up a friendship with next-door neighbor Tess Tabares, who's struggling to connect with her college-bound daughter. The women begin taking daily walks and soon Rosemary "Rosie" Stockton, who owns her family's lavender farm, joins in. Despite their very different-yet all very prickly-personalities, the three women soon form a tight bond. With her easygoing style, Cook (Must Love Dogs) engages readers, drawing them into the daily lives of these new friends. Geographical inconsistencies-the novel is set in Massachusetts but has a distinctive Southern flair-may bother some readers but most will be satisfied with this breezy beach read.

April 1, 2009
Unremarkable sixth novel from Cook (Summer Blowout, 2008, etc.), who seems to specialize in stories of middle-aged women crossing the sandpits that are their lives.

Noreen Kelly—mid-40s, single, childless, the owner of a perfectly decent house on the Massachusetts shore—has decided to take the buyout that Balancing Act Shoes is offering her. Eighteen months of salary and some career counseling sound pretty sweet, except now Noreen feels not just her job but her whole life is a little redundant. On a whim she buys a load of walking shoes with her employee discount, and soon she finds a walking partner in her neighbor Tess. Strangers until now (but for a brief conversation on the benefits of line-drying clothes), the two meander up to the big house on the hill and, with its owner Rosie, immediately organize the Wildwater Walking Club. Wearing Noreen's discounted sneakers and pedometers, they surpass 10,000 steps every morning on their beach walk as they air their grievances: teenage daughters (Tess); an overfull plate of responsibilities (Rosie); the general sense of displacement (Noreen). Life-coaching courses have helped Noreen realize that her identity has been too defined by her corporate title. She needs to get a life, and maybe a boyfriend too, in the form of Rick, a fellow traveler in the world of recent unemployment. Meanwhile, the Wildwater Walking Club decides to treat itself to a little vacation. After much bickering, its three members decide on a lavender festival in Washington. A few subplots round out the story: Noreen's mother comes for a visit and falls for Rosie's dashing widowed dad; Tess and Noreen become involved in a right-to-air-dry movement; all three women follow the progress of a New Orleans teacher battling cancer who's struck up an e-mail acquaintance with Tess. None of this raises the fictional temperature to anything above lukewarm.

Predictable and blandly cozy.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2009
The rest of your life starts with one step. Noreen Kelly learns this the hard way when she takes a buyout offer at her small shoe company and wakes up the day afterjobless, dumped by her slick co-worker, and wondering who she is and what she wants. She becomes tentative friends with Tess and Rosie, and together the women form a walking club, each step bringing them closer together and closer to the life solutions they all seek. Cook creates likable female characters with realistic flaws. The plots are marked with Gilmore Girlstype dialogue and settings, utterly charming from beginning to end. Theres plenty of laughs, anger, sorrow, and rage to keep the story moving along at a breezy pace; and all the subplots involving the multigenerational characters and their kooky suburban antics are tied up nicely. Theres a little more edge here than in a typical gentle novel, but more softness than in an edgy hen-lit novel. Miss Julia would be proud to be friends with these women.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)