Single in Suburbia

Starred review from June 15, 2006
Forced to support herself and her two children when her husband's betrayal and their subsequent divorce shatters their lives and leaves her penniless, Amanda Sheridan, aided by two women who don't fit the suburban mold any more than she does, -becomes - the very French Solange de Papillon and sets about cleaning the houses of the women who were once part of her social set in suburban Atlanta, with illuminating and absolutely hilarious results. A sexy single father provides Amanda's romantic interest in this witty romp, which squarely nails the suburban ambience in all its traditional family-oriented glory and stirs up a bit of scandal in the process. Funny, poignant, and fresh, this winner will appeal to both romance and women's fiction fans. Wax ("Hostile Makeover") lives in the Atlanta suburbs.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
Amanda's husband has run off with a young thing named Tiffany, and everyone in this tony Atlanta suburb knows about it. Former friends avoid eye contact, thus rendering her son's baseball games excruciating, especially since Amanda, along with two other women considered pariahs, is relegated to helping out at the concession stands. Amanda finds a new kind of friendship with these two women, especially when she discovers that her husband has left her virtually penniless. What can a woman whose only skills are cooking, cleaning, and carpooling do to support her family? The three brainstorm and come up with the idea of a housecleaning service. Since her clientele are her snooty neighbors, Amanda dons a disguise, and, curiously, her alter ego has the confidence she lacks. Truly a treat to devour in one sitting, Wax's story of a woman's transformation from dependence to dominance is a hugely entertaining study in self-empowerment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)