From Publishers Weekly
There's no place like limbo to encourage a decisive stroll down one path or another. London suburbanite Maggie Owen is thoroughly disenchanted with domestic life. She gave up a journalism jobgranted, one she wasn't very good atto raise two sons, toddler Fergus and baby Dan, with hopes of personal fulfillment. Instead, she is bored by playground mums and dreary household cares. After a chance meeting with Claire Masterson, former classmate and glamorous career woman who seems happily single, Maggie's self-confidence takes a nosedive. She worries that, at 35, she's aging prematurely and poorly. As if confirming her fears, Maggie's longtime partner, advertising executive Jake, starts working late hours and stops initiating sex. Maggie feels especially vulnerable because they never married. Could he be having an affair? Maggie's best friend, Mel, doesn't think so. She's a single mother and doctor whose wisdom and patience temper Maggie's worst moments of self-involvement. At another get-together, Claire confides to Maggie that she returned home from New York City because the married love-of-her-life was in London. Clever to a fault, Maggie assumes she knows what's going on with whom and considers defying her do-gooder, do-right role and exacting revenge. The personal dramas are only as tragic as Maggie's sharp humor will allow them to bethat is, not verywhich makes British journalist Durrant's debut a fine mix of adroit plotting and page-turning comedic suspense.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this debut novel by British journalist Durrant, Maggie is a thirtysomething Londoner who has traded in her funky job at a literary magazine to stay home with a toddler and a baby. As her pseudo-husband Jake (he never wanted to marry formally) zips off to advertising meetings in Amsterdam, Maggie attempts to stay sane and raise her children at the same time. Then Maggie bumps into Claire, an old school friend who had it all in high school and still does. Claire is single, gorgeous, and a famous screenwriter. She is definitely not wearing a ratty T-shirt spotted with spit-up, and, as Maggie determines later, she may also be having an affair with Jake. So when Maggie meets a sexy gardener named Pete who gives her some encouraging glances, she thinks, Why not? Jake's work pals and Maggie's droll mother make for an amusing cast of characters. A cute and entertaining story, this novel reads like a Julia Roberts movie and will appeal especially to readers who have or enjoy young children. For public libraries. Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
