Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but not good either...
Review: Sarah Hurlihy is in her forties, divorced and lonely. She spends her nights making new recipes (macaroni and cheese mixed with wine) and watching reruns of the Brady Bunch.
She takes out a personal ad and tries to find someone to date. After her first failure where she unknowingly answers her father's ad, you would hope that she would give up...but she didn't.
She now tries to balance the new men in her life: John Anderson: who is sweet, but it doesn't always quite work out. She also likes a dad from the preschool where she teaches: but she doesn't know if he is dating her co-worker or he is just overly charming. All the while she is trying to deal with the old men in her life: her brother Michael, who keeps getting kicked out of the house by his wife. Also her dad: who is looking for a "slow bloom of affection," and is continually running away from one of his psycho girlfriends Dolly, who thinks he is a "no-good alley cat."
I found the whole personal ad--finding love thing something to hold my interest at first, but Sarah doesn't like anyone and jumps back and forth between not-very-entertaining characters. I kept getting the names mixed up and found myself reading quickly to find something worthwhile. The other part of the book, she spends her time being lonely and hating her life because she is not as pretty as her co-worker, she has never been the "good looking sister," and she just wants to be with someone again. I found myself feeling more and more sorry for this woman who wants to fill the void by "finding a man."
I was attracted to the book because the cover caught my eye: the title written in black curly handwriting, two cute puppies held on leashes by two pairs of legs, but maybe I shouldn't have judged the book by it's cover.
Rating: 
Summary: Must Love Laughter
Review: "Barely 40"-year-old, preschool teacher (and afterschool activity coordinator) Sarah Hurlihy is a delightful young woman with a sense of humor as well as a sense of adventure, as she takes the bold half-step (her sister, Carol, does some downright shoving to get Sarah half-willing to go along) to put a singles ad in the paper (which is pretty amazing, considering the results of her first bold half-step of answering a personal ad!)...
While Sarah is trying to deal with her divorce from Kevin, and trying to juggle the drama of her five siblings' busy lives as well as the Bradys' (I loved the tidbits from Brady Bunch reruns!), her mother's recent death and Don Quixote-type father, she accepts Mother Teresa's (St. Bernard puppy) leash and the challenges of dog-sitting, as well. Add to the mix several prospective Mr. Rights and you're in for a satisfying dish of vanilla humor with a dab of lemon soul-searching. Definitely a "pick-me-up," though the ending left me hungry for more.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Beach Bag Book
Review: "Must Love Dogs" is fun and light -- perfect to toss in your tote for a quiet read on the beach. The main character, Sarah Hurlihy, is a forty-something pre-school teacher who decides to drag herself out of her post-divorce depression and "get back out there." What Sarah finds "out there" is enough comic relief to fuel her through one disasterous encounter after another. With her large and colorful family trooping in and out of her life at inopportune times with troubles and demands of their own Sarah's challenges are huge and her privacy non-existant. Every failed encounter, foible and mis-step is grist for the family rumor mill. I thought the main character's sadness over the end of her marriage was very sensitively woven into the story and gave a nice counterpoint to the spirit and determination she showed to rediscover herself and find a new life and a new love. Nice and light -- an average reader could read this book start to finish in an afternoon or two.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Beach Bag Book
Review: "Must Love Dogs" is fun and light -- perfect to toss in your tote for a quiet read on the beach. The main character, Sarah Hurlihy, is a forty-something pre-school teacher who decides to drag herself out of her post-divorce depression and "get back out there." What Sarah finds "out there" is enough comic relief to fuel her through one disasterous encounter after another. With her large and colorful family trooping in and out of her life at inopportune times with troubles and demands of their own Sarah's challenges are huge and her privacy non-existant. Every failed encounter, foible and mis-step is grist for the family rumor mill. I thought the main character's sadness over the end of her marriage was very sensitively woven into the story and gave a nice counterpoint to the spirit and determination she showed to rediscover herself and find a new life and a new love. Nice and light -- an average reader could read this book start to finish in an afternoon or two.
Rating:
Summary: Romantic and funny!
Review: A friend of mine gave me this book to take with me camping. I started reading there and couldn't wait to come back and see what happens at the end!The story is not new but the narration and the description is absolutely amazing.. real life situations and feelings.. you could understand Sarah's feelings and her depression, laugh and cry with her.. she has a great family around her who actually cares.. friends and coworkers from every day life.. Sarah's ordeal was how to start all over again at 40 .. to find someone to love and share her time with after her divorce . . we know enough about each character to make us understand Sarah and what goes on around her.. which I think made the story interesting and an easy read! It is like watching a movie where you actually know what would happen at the end but because Cook is such a funny and creative writer, you don't give it a second thought. You read and turn the pages, laughing, cracking up, feeling sad for her sometimes and can't wait to see what'll happen next! Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Must Love Dogs
Review: A funny story (I did laugh out loud thorough out the book)about Sarah Hurlihy's life as a divorced preschool teacher. The story revolves around her interferring family and their lives, her job, a personal ad, embarassing moments in Sarah's life, friendships, a handful of men, a puppy St. Bernard, and a navel piercing. Enjoyed every second of this book. If Claire Cook writes a second book about Sarah's life, which I recommend she does, I'll be sure to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Must love to laugh
Review: A large boisterous, meddling family, a classroom of preschoolers and various dogs all combine to make this a very good read. Everything about the book is fun - the classroom scenes filled with children who say it as they see it, the meditating classroom assistant, Sarah's meeting "new friends" after her sister places an ad in the personal column in Sarah's name and particularly Dolly - one of her widowed Dad's 2 girlfriends. It's fast, funny and definitely worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Personals ad romance based on Murphy's Law
Review: A recently-divorced teacher is coerced into playing the dating game again, under not so subtle pressure from her large Irish Catholic family. Zany, colorful characters and a plot based on Murphy's Law make this a quick and fun summer read.
Rating:
Summary: cute, funny novel
Review: Claire Cook has created a novel with an accurate, humorous portrayal of a woman searching for the perfect man. This book had a very catchy opening and continued its humor untill the very end. There are actual times in the book where the reader will laugh out loud. It is so candid and sincere and very relatable. The only negative I would comment about is the ending. I felt there was not enough information about the status of Sarah's relationship with John Anderson. It was very random and open-ended. Overall though, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: believable people in "normal-crazy" situations!!
Review: Claire Cook has created real believable people in normal-crazy situations!! How can you not love a book when a daughter accepts a "singles-ad" date only to find out it is her widowed father that she is meeting!! This is not giving anything away, it just points out that this book is full of amusing twists and turns on some of lifes' "less-than-finer" points. Yes, Sarah, the lead character is a bit whiney, a bit of a self-pitying 40 year old divorcee, but don't we all have friends that fall into that category that we love!!! Her family is big and wild and funny. They are also real and big hearted!! When Sarah's dad is dating Dolly from the trailer park....well Dolly is just too well developed a character to think that she is not a real individual, and Dolly's reactions to not being number one are hysterical!! The interaction of Sarah and her friends and family strike a rare note of honesty and the question of where will she allow her life to take her remain hidden until the end, which in itself is fun!!! If none of this amuses you, add to all this a pup named Mother Theresa in an Irish, Catholic family and you get a quick taste of Claire Cooks' humor. To sum this book up....fast, funny, real and a painfully honest main character make this is a fun book to really enjoy.
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