Hoping for Hope

By Lucy Clare and Lucy Woolley

Book Overview

The week of her 50th birthday would always be one to remember. First, Lydia Liddy Claver lost her teaching job. Then she learned that her husband of 30 years was having an affair with one of her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 075153157X
• ISBN13: 9780751531572
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Little Brown & Company
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.7" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

What a bad day!

I really enjoyed this book. I was telling my husband about poor Liddy's bad day & he couldn't believe it. After all, how many people get laid off, find out they're pregnant (after not having sex with their spouse for five years), and then find out that their husband is having an affair with another woman... all in one day? Even with all that drama, the story still ended well, although not as I had imagined it at first. Hope's chapter at the end is just so sweet it almost brought a tear to my eye. Okay, nuff said, so nothing is given away. If you like this story, you would probably also enjoy Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch by Haywood Smith and Angels by Marian Keyes.

Not confusing for us American readers.

Liddy Claver thinks she is going through the change. Well, in a way she is, just not what she thinks. At fifty, she is pregnant and learns that her husband is cheating on her with a friend. What's more, the baby's father is not her husband, just a much younger man she had a fling with several months ago. She is also now jobless, her adult ed class having been eliminated. Before Liddy can find the courage to tell her husband, or anyone in her family what has happened, her lesbian, very old aunt needs her to come and take care of her while she recovers from an illness. On her way back home, Liddy goes into premature labor and winds up having to stay in Cornwall a bit longer. Hope, her new child, is almost two weeks old before anyone in the family other than the aunt finds out about her.Liddy's husband is hurt and leaves her. Her grown children's reactions are varied. For their own reasons, each wants to adopt Hope. One daughter sees the baby as a way to save her flagging relationship with her male roommate. The gay son finds her the ideal solution to his and his partner's desire for a baby. The last daughter feels obligated to adopt Hope, as she is the only one with a stable home and family. While all these generous offers are touching, perhaps, Liddy feels quite capable of taking care of her daughter herself. That remains to be seen. ***** Unlike most British imports, this novel does not confuse the American reader with unfamiliar terms. Liddy's situation is a unique one, and so is her family. With guts and determination, she handles a life where if it's not one thing, it's three, with grace and aplomb. Humor and tears will be replete in this too unreal not to be real book. ***** Reviewed by Amanda Killgore.