Book Reviews & GIveaway: The Proper Care and Mainenance of Friendship

Author: Lisa Verge Higgins

What a great trounce of a novel! I should have read this book a month ago, but I kept saving it, because it looked – well, delicious! And it is!

Rachel Braun, a vivacious, unstoppable Molly Brown, a force of nature to her friends, dies suddenly of cancer, leaving her three best friends grieving. And opening envelopes. For Rachel has left a last request, an assignment of sorts, to be performed by each friend after her death. To Kate, caught up in a Suburban Perfect Mom role with three children and a Corporate Husband, Rachel leaves the perfect request. Kate must go skydiving, take a risk, topple off of her safe beautiful suburban home and shake up her dull and boring marriage of 15 years. Rachel knew Kate was dying in the demands of kids and a husband who has retreated to mediocrity in his marriage, and Kate knows it too.

To Jo, Marketing Party and Media Queen, and high profile professional, whose life is all about her work, Rachel bequeaths her 7 year old daughter, Gracie Braun. Gracie has been deeply traumatized by her mother’s death, and Jo goes ballistic as she tries to juggle a child throwing tantrums, while she drags Gracie to therapy. For Jo knows nothing about children – how could she? She has been responsible only to herself.

To Sarah, a nurse in the hidden bush of Africa, Rachel leaves another task. Sarah must find the love of her life, Dr. Colin Quinn O’Rourke, who left her 14 years, 6 months and 3 days ago. For Sarah cannot have a healthy relationship, or any relationship for that matter. She is too enamored of the memories of her days with Dr. O’Rourke in Paraguay many years ago. Sarah cannot go back or move forward, until she sees O’Rourke again. And Rachel knows how to help, even in death.

Quirky, original and startlingly refreshing, this is a novel about friends. It’s a novel about risks. And it’s a novel about dreams, what we thought they were, and what we discover them to be.

As Kate travels to India with Sarah to find Dr. O’Rourke, she demands that her husband meet her there. When he doesn’t, she makes her decision. As Jo trips and traumatizes over Gracie, she discovers her real goals in life. And Sarah discovers that the man in front of you always beats out a 14 year old memory.

Kate, Sarah and Jo follow Rachel’s mantra of living life to its fullest. The novel, both tender and poignantly amazing, cuts to the core. As Rachel brings her three best friends the things that they need most, we find ourselves cheering her on, for life is too short to procrastinate.

Gifted and talented, Lisa Verge Higgins bestows the same gift on her readers. Great novel. Great reading. Great characters and plot.

The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship is available at bookstores nationwide.

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale

Overall: 4

Review by Broad “A” – Ava

We received a copy of this title for our book review. All opinions are our own.

GIVEAWAY

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