“Looking for Real Life.” The graffiti scrawled on the ladies room wall was an abrupt wake-up call. Claire Wilder had devoted herself to her ex-husband, Andrew, and then spent the past years stuck in fantasy dreams of him returning and loving her once again, while the essence of her life slipped away. In a fit of tattered courage, Claire changes everything. She gets a new hairdo, quits her dismal … quits her dismal job and leaves her fancy condo, and hits the road, looking for real life.
Her path takes her to the small, dusty town of Valentine, Oklahoma, where she checks in to the timeworn but charming Goodnight Motel. It is an unexpected place, with unexpected happenings, and where a brief one-night stay turns into weeks in which the fabric of her heart is rewoven and entwined with those of the quirky and lovable folks of Valentine. Claire begins to find herself with surprising new dreams, until an old and cherished dream shows up—Andrew, who has come to win her back!
Which real life will Claire choose?
Discover the town and stories that have captured readers’ hearts everywhere— Valentine, a place where neighbors are family, family is life, life is to love…and miracles are indeed possible…
“A wonderful cast and perfect setting.” —Booklist
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When Claire Wilder reads the mysterious yet hopeful message about searching for ‘real life’ on the wall of the truck stop women’s room, she is inspired to kick off the trappings of her divorce-afterlife and hit the road herself. She quits her job, cuts her hair, packs her car and heads to … Valentine, Oklahoma. It was supposed to be just for one night: time enough to get an impression of the place she was born but never really lived. She just wanted to see where her father’s people – a father she’d never known – had lived and, eventually, passed away. And in her heart of hearts, she wanted a clue to why her father had never tried to contact her.
Claire has a lot to wonder about. On her way out of town, she’d run into her ex-husband, Andrew, who had had second thoughts about his impending marriage to his much-younger fiancée, and now wanted to try for a reconciliation with Claire (something Claire had been wishing for since the divorce two years earlier.) But having made her mind up about this solo trip, Claire surprises even herself by putting Andrew off and wanting to think about it.
Settled in at Valentine’s only lodgings, the Goodnight Motel, Claire begins her search for answers, starting with some of the locals who might have actually known her father or his family. With the help of the charming and gentlemanly, Winston Valentine, she successfully locates her grandparents’ final resting spot. However, the next morning she awakes to find her car and all her belongings have been stolen, and the thief has left behind his frightened and very vulnerable, pregnant girlfriend, Sherrilyn. As Claire tries to help the girl, she becomes more and more a part of the small rural community and her search for her father and his people becomes more and more a search for her real self and a real life.
This sixth book in the author’s Valentine series is a solid, satisfying story of not just one woman’s search for herself but two. Claire has been drifting through life reacting and not actively living, passively adapting around and to the actions of others, relying on others to make her a life, waiting for her father to return to her and her mother, to rescue them. It is good to watch as she finally takes the steps to lead her own life as she desires, overcomes her lethargy, and takes charge. The lost soul, Sherrilyn, is a beaten-down thing but her pregnancy has given her a goal and the beginnings of some strength to protect herself and her unborn child. She stands firm when she doesn’t want to have an abortion against the abusive Denny, and refuses to agree to give up the baby for adoption. The characters that populate the pages of the book seem so very real, not unlike those that populate your own community.
I recommend this book for readers that like a story of overcoming the odds and taking charge of one’s life. There is romance and a strong sense of accomplishment throughout the book for many characters.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.
I loved this book. I never read this author (Curtiss Ann Matlock) before, but when I saw the cover, it drew me in. I bought it in a bookstore and the cover is different from the one on Kindle. Anyway, I read the blurb, and the first few chapters, and I was pulled it. I had to buy the book.
As I read the book, I was transported into the characters’ world and it was as if I was at the motel in Valentine, Oklahoma, feeling the gamut of emotions Claire (the heroine) was experiencing. The story is a slice of life and how people’s lives intersect and how taking chances and breaking away from the routine of life can sometimes bring wonderful things into one’s life.
I love Southern writers, and this writer is one I will continue to read. A very enjoyable and satisfying read.