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Claire Everett is your typical overworked, stressed-out mother of four. She’s an aspiring Christian author who’s known for writing Christian romance novels, but now she’s working on writing a different type of novel, trying to change her genre and broaden her talents. Claire is divorced from her children’s father, due to his infidelity, but she’s engaged to a wonderful man, Greg, whom she met while he was a teacher at her children’s school. Shortly after Greg and Claire fell in love, Greg told Claire that he was being called to preach, and he moved 200 miles away to go to seminary and prepare to become a preacher. Greg has also been offered an opportunity to be an interim pastor at a small church, an hour and a half from their home—beginning the day after he and Claire are to marry. Claire visits the new church and finds herself very confused and distressed. Now, not only is she marrying a preacher and giving up her honeymoon in Hawaii, but she’s also being asked to move her kids to this tiny little community.
At the same time, Claire is also trying to plan her dream wedding to Greg. When she and her best friend, Linda, are out shopping for the perfect wedding dress, Claire falls completely in love with a Vera Wang gown priced at $5,000. Since she hasn’t had a book deal in a while, Claire is stretched in trying to make ends meet and cover the wedding costs. But the dress drives Claire to look for new ways to earn some extra money. She begins walking dogs to earn a few extra bucks, but she realizes rather quickly that this alone will not get her the cash she needs to get the dress.
Through her dog walking, Claire meets a single, handsome, and very available bachelor, and finds herself extremely attracted to him. At first, she’s bothered by her attraction, and then she begins to think it’s just meaningless flirtation—but the new bachelor, Jerry, is relentless in pursuing her. Jerry dazzles Claire with flowers, chocolates, and even a surprise Valentine’s gift. But will it be enough to draw her away from the honest and loving Greg?
Claire’s struggle to figure out what’s best for her and her children, coupled with the distraction of the hunky bachelor, makes I Love Claire a very entertaining read. Claire’s struggle as a single mom, dealing with her ex-husband and his beautiful and kind new wife, along with her newfound love of dogs, makes it both comical and realistic. This is Tracey Bateman’s third book in her series on Claire Everett—and, after reading it, I intend to pick up her first two and keep looking for more from this very talented author.
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