Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook

Seven Year Switch Reviews

• 
  Julie

  I have never read anything by Claire Cook, and I am not sure that I will again. It wasn't that it was bad - the book itself was an easy fast read and I read it in one day - it's just that the characters were very one dimensional and the story very predictable.
  
  Jill, a single mother of a 10-year-old, finds that her life hasn't turned out how she hoped and she is firmly stuck in a rut. Just as a potential new boyfriend comes along, so does her estranged husband who abandoned her and her daughter seven years earlier. Jill needs to decide whether to let her husband back in to her life to become a family again or finally forgive him and move on with her own life. To do this, she does some soul searching on a girlfriend getaway to Costa Rica. Routine and predictable, you know from the beginning that you're pretty much guaranteed a happy ending in some form or another.
• 
  L.E. Fidler

  this was not as bad as i feared it would be. so there's that.
  
  jill's husband left her and her daughter seven years ago. then, he comes back just as she starts dating. hijinks ensue.
  
  honestly, the premise bugged me the most - if my hubby left me high and dry for seven years (or, you know, 7 weeks), i would not be so keen to expose him to our daughter once he decided to remove his head from his sphincter and get his act together. i also wouldn't just leave him alone in the house with our daughter to go on a voyage of self discovery to costa rica. just sayin'.
  
  none of the other characters felt particularly fleshed out - the worst being cynthia, jill's neighbor, who is a cross between barbie and mrs. malaprop.
  
  that said, it was quick and breezy. not bad for a summer book, not good for a thinking woman.
• 
  LORI CASWELL

  Dollycas’s Thoughts
  
  Jill Murray’s life was finally going in the right direction then her ex-husband returns after being gone for 7 years wanting to see his daughter. Jill is not ready for him to be back in their life, how does she know he just won’t disappear again? When she tells her daughter he has come back she demands to see him as soon as possible and Jill watches the life she has created for herself and her daughter the past seven years implode. While all this is happening Jill meets Billy. He hires her to help him plan for a trip to Japan to pitch a business idea. Almost immediately she feels drawn to him and not in a business way. Is she ready for another man in her life? Should she try to get back with her husband for her daughter? She has no idea what to do so she signs on to a Costa Rican Girls Getaway to get away from both of them and the pressure in hopes she can figure out what direction her life should take.
  
  This author has been recommended to me my several friends and this book was sitting on my To-Be-Read shelves for too long. Wanting a literary escape to the beach this cover called out to me so I grabbed it to read last weekend. Within a few minutes I was engaged by the characters. Jill working for a travel company from home with a phone headset attached to head as she travels her home taking care of her daughter, making supper, doing laundry, helping with homework, normal mom things. Her daughter, Anastasia, understands her mom needs to work but doesn’t appreciate the way it interrupts their time together. When her dad enters back into the picture she starts to turn to him for everything. He also makes the huge error of giving her things she wants without discussing it first with Jill. Billy adds the triangle-ish- ness to the story. The next door neighbor fits well into the picture too. All the characters are realistically written and the dialogues are excellent. The characters are the true strength to this story.
  
  The plot starts out really well and because of the synopsis I knew a trip to Costa Rica is coming and as I got past halfway into the story I wondered how the author was going to tie up everything and thrown in a trip within the remaining pages. Well she does wrap things up but to me it was just too rushed, almost abrupt. All the depth and detail that I loved in the beginning was gone. I appreciated the message of self-worth, change and growth the author was trying to get across. The idea that every seven years you become a completely new person,as a theme was heartwarming but the decisions made at the end just happened too fast for me.
  
  I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this story so I still want to read more of Claire Cook’s novels. I am hoping this speedy end was just a fluke.
• 
  Allie

  I listened this book because it is by the author of Must Love Dogs which was turned into a movie, which I thought was a different movie than it is.
  
  So I was very confused to find out Must Love Dogs is an entirely different movie and book than I was thinking of. And I was very confused when this book just wasn't very good.
  
  I got through most of it while doing dishes or making dinner, and it is a fairly short read. The narrator was great.
  
  It is about Jill, the mother of ten-year-old Anastasia, and the challenges of being a single mother. Jill's ex and Anastasia's father, Seth, left them seven years ago without a word since. He shows up again and everything changes. Jill wants to kill him at first, then she thinks maybe they can make it work, then she remembers who he is and decides to let him go and truly move on with her life. In the form of dating another man, of course.
  
  It is chick-lit, I knew this going in, but was still incredibly disappointed. So predictable, so mundane, so ridiculous. There hardly was a plotline. What was this book even about?
  
  I don't know. Don't read it. Unless you want to. Then do.
• 
  Kasia (kasikowykurz)

  2.5 ⭐
  
  Heeee... po tych 70% w ogóle nie chciałam jej kończyć i już się zastanawiałam nad DNF, ale zagryzłam zęby i skończyłam. Końcówka trochę mi to wynagrodziła, ale sama książka ogólnie nudnawa i trochę z bardzo moralizatorska. I nie wiem, czy już wyrosłam z takich historii, czy jednak jestem na nie trochę za młoda (ze względu na wiek głównej bohaterki, jest po 30-tce, może starsza).
  
  Podoba mi się pomysł na historię, ale samo wykonanie już nie bardzo.
• 
  Tattered Cover Book Store

  Jackie says:
  
  One of the surest signs that winter is over is a review copy of Claire Cook's new novel on my desk, because I've truly come to think that summer would just not be summer without a new release from her. This one is coming out in June.
  
  Seven Year Switch is another winner. Jill Murray had been living a man-free existence since her husband walked out on them when their daughter Anastasia was just a toddler. She cobbles together a living by doing telephone work for Great Girlfriend Getaways (who specialize in all women trips to exciting places) and teaching an "Around The World" cooking class while fitting in a bit of cultural coaching on the side (helping business people to learn cultural mores for business trips, etc). On the plus side, she's just met a great guy--the first to even make her consider dating again. On the minus side, her daughter is developing "pre-teen attitude" early. But the real problems start when Jill's husband turns back up in town.
  
  As always, Claire populates her books with quirky characters and funny situations while delivering an important message. This is a fantastic summer, or any time, read!!!
• 
  Mahoghani 23

  What do you do when your significant other decides that real life is boring and he/she wants to live footloose and fancy free? Now, seven years later, they wish to return to normal and start up where you all left off. Seth and Jill had the happy life of newlyweds with a young toddler but this was too much for Seth and he takes off to live as a geographical bachelor.
  
  
  Comical and downright funny. Too much of the OCD mommy and person but suddenly Jill gets it in the end. Life is just what you make of it. A plausible way to end the story without sounding too judgmental about Jill and her over-the-t0p parenting.
• 
  Karen

  This plot had a whole lot more potential than the book actually delivered. The main character is an expert on different cultures. At first, reading them as they are woven into the storyline is amusing. After awhile, it just gets in the way of the story. The ending was a let down. I was sorry I wasted my time reading the book.
• 
  Lisa B.

  Delightful!
• 
  Denise Westlake

  Nice clean love story. Good characters. Jill is a very knowledgeable travel consultant!
• 
  Karen

  Claire Cook never fails to come through. Since my first book review, which was for Claire’s book SUMMER BLOWOUT, she has never let me down when I pick up a new book of hers to read. She has a way of making even the toughest things in life bearable and her talented writing draws readers in through her marvelous stories, clever dialogue, and her captivating characters. In SEVEN YEAR SWITCH, readers meet Jill Murray who is one of those characters I just mentioned who captured my interest right off and had me rooting for her all the way. I found Jill to be a witty, bright, compelling and caring mother and an independent woman who didn’t deserve the agony she felt when suddenly her ex-husband pops back into her and her daughter Anastasia’s lives. Although Anastasia is delighted to have her father there, Jill is dubious of his motives and commitment.
  
  The idea from the title that every seven years our body’s skin rejuvenates thus making us into a “new” person, goes right along with the book’s concept of personal change and growth being a positive thing in our lives. Cook surrounds Jill with intriguing characters that move the story along and fit into that principal premise of the book that was based on transformation and progression. With Jill’s neighbor, Cynthia, being almost the opposite of Jill in most ways, she provided a strong character for Jill to play off of. She was entertaining and feisty, and quite a welcome addition in the story.
  
  Of course, there was suddenly these men surrounding Jill, quite a change from the start of the story…a feast or famine situation. Besides her ex, Seth, there is the caring and amusing Billy who is a client of Jill’s and who is hard to resist. How Jill handles all of this is to take off on her own for a gal pal trip to Costa Rica and hope to find what she is looking for there…or at least some peace for her to be able to think and relax.
  
  How Jill deals with everything and everyone is trademark Claire Cook as she takes a serious subject and deals with it gently, with warmth and fun, and creates an answer that educates, amuses, and involves the reader. The story of SEVEN YEAR SWITCH will entertain you while it also will endear itself to you as well. If like me, you start the book early enough, you will at least get a good night’s sleep as I read it in one sitting and was happy I hadn’t started it late in the day because I couldn’t put it down. Another delightful gift, and perfect for the summer read, but wouldn’t be bad by a cozy fire in winter as well, is SEVEN YEAR SWITCH from a favorite author, Claire Cook!
  
  
• 
  Louise

  Once again Claire hasn't disappointed me. "The Seven Year Switch" was FANTASTIC!!!!
  
  Jill Murray had, or so she thought, a wonderful husband a wonderful marriage but Seth unfortunately did not. He picked up one day seven years ago and just disappeared leaving Jill with their two-year-old daughter, Anastasia.
  
  Jill finally figured out how to live on her own, with a job and caring for her young daughter Anastasia and being both a Mom and Dad to her. One day out of the blue, Seth suddenly returns and expects to be taken back in to the family and resume the life they
  had. This idea proves difficult for Jill, but Anatasia is over the moon about having her Dad back and now wants to be called "Asia", thanks to Seth and this doesn't sit well with Jill.
  
  Seth buys Asia a cell phone and hampster without consulting Jill and this upsets Jill as well until she sits Asia and Seth down and tells them both that no other decisions shall be made without consulting with her first.
  
  Prior to all this, Jill has been working with her elderly friend Joni in a business called 'Great Girlfriend Getaways' where they arrange trips for girlfriends. Just as Seth makes his return, Jills meets a handsome "bicycler' who she meets at Starbucks and
  is consulting him on the ways of the Japanese for an upcoming trip that he wants her to go on with him.
  
  They say you change every 7 years but Jill isn't sure what she should do with Seth, or the new buy until she goes on a great Costa Rican get-a-way. What will she decide to do? Well my friends, that's up to YOU to find out!
  
  You HAVE to purchase this novel!!
  
• 
  Nicole Jacob

  First thoughts on the book -
  I really enjoyed it. SYS is a light, easy type of book that'll keep you engaged until the end. There was nothing super special about this book though. Single mother working to make ends meet and just as she starts to find love, her ex husband comes back into the picture. The plot was never anything fancy - a snapshot of the broken family and their day to day routines. How it effects the daughter and the mother were very believable and somewhat exciting. I'm also confused about the title and how that really played into the whole story (other than her husband disappeared for 7 years).
  
  I felt like the character who was well written was the daughter, Anastasia. She seemed the most believable. I sometimes had a hard time with Jill, the main character/mother. She seemed a little too okay with some things - like her annoying neighbor - she lash out at, but yet still watch her children when the bus dropped them off. And when her ex-husband shows up again, she decides it's okay to leave her daughter with him after the entire novel of not trusting him at all. I was slightly confused about her profession. Her cooking class that she taught seemed interesting, but it was only once a week? And if she's capable of holding a teaching job, she probably wouldn't need to work as a vacation telemarketer/salesmen at night. I didn't know if I was supposed to feel sorry for her and celebrate her small victories or just assume it's the norm for her.
• 
  Jackie

  One of the surest signs that winter is over is a review copy of Claire Cook's new novel on my desk, because I've truly come to think that summer would just not be summer without a new release from her. This one is coming out in June.
  
  Seven Year Switch is another winner. Jill Murray had been living a man-free existence since her husband walked out on them when their daughter Anastasia was just a toddler. She cobbles together a living by doing telephone work for Great Girlfriend Getaways (who specialize in all women trips to exciting places) and teaching an "Around The World" cooking class while fitting in a bit of cultural coaching on the side (helping business people to learn cultural mores for business trips, etc). On the plus side, she's just met a great guy--the first to even make her consider dating again. On the minus side, her daughter is developing "pre-teen attitude" early. But the real problems start when Jill's husband turns back up in town.
  
  As always, Claire populates her books with quirky characters and funny situations while delivering an important message. This is a fantastic summer, or any time, read!!!
• 
  Kari

  OK more like 2.5 stars. This was a quick read. I'm not sure I totally liked the choices Jill makes. I think she took her ex-husband back into her life a little too easily. I was shocked it never occurred to her to ask what he was doing for a living and had been doing for the past 7 years. But then I guess that would have ruined the "twist". The only character I really liked was Billy. I thought the neighbor was annoying. I didn't see enough of the relationship between the 2 women to understand why they would be friends. I know others seemed to have loved this book, but I couldn't give it more than 2.5 stars.
• 
  Dana

  Claire Cook's "The Seven Year Switch," is a really fun, quick read. Just when Jill Murray is starting to feel a small spark for someone other than her husband who went awol seven years earlier, said husband decides to resurface and wants his family (Jill and their very precocious ten year old daughter, Anastasia) back. They were never divorced, and Jill DOES still find him attractive, but he left her with no money, no real explanation, and she is filled with anger, and rightly so. How they navigate his return, and how Jill continues to work several jobs, raise a child and even make an important trip to Costa Rica all make for a page turner I hated to see end.
• 
  Ines

  When I picked up this book, I knew it wasn't a pulitzer-prize winning novel, but I didn't anticipate that I would get so little enjoyment out of listening to this book.
  
  It is basically a book about a woman in the stages of moving on with her life after a divorce. If you want to read about that, I would recommend [Book: Eat, Pray, Love|19501] instead. For me that was a much more enjoyable reading experience.
  
  Lots of people like this book, but I'm not a huge romance or chick-lit (at least this kind) of fan.
• 
  Jennie Martinez

  Very quick read -- actually I listed to this book on CD. It kept me interested, but I was a little disappointed in the lack of depth (I know, I know, it wasn't SUPPOSED to be deep) and hardly any drama! The part I liked about it was how this lover of travel found ways to incorporate it into her local life. I think I would enjoy this more as a movie -- where I can really appreciate the scenery and good looks of her love interests.
• 
  Mia

  Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this type of book, but I thought it was just okay. There were a couple cute parts, but overall I thought the characters were underdeveloped, almost like the author left out more plot and dialogue 'cause she figured the reader could just fill it in for themselves.
• 
  Jeannine J9

  I've loved every book Claire Cook's written. This one was no different. Finished it in about 3 hours. Just terrific. And I liked the fact that the ending wasn't an ending per se. It left the door open for possibilities which was what the whole book was about!
• 
  Beth

  I was given an ARC of this novel by the publisher and I loved it! So much so that I ended up writing a blurb for the cover! Highly enjoyable read.
• 
  Alissa

  I love Claire Cook and this was another delightful confection of chick lit. Although I wish there was more on the resolution and I thought Jill's aha moment came much too quickly.
• 
  Emily Valentino

  Writing is funny, a very easy/fast read. Enjoyable light beach read (maybe too light).
• 
  Andrea

  Great story from Claire Cook. I love all the stories she comes out with about special women. She writes a character that you can easily picture being friends with, flaws and all!
• 
  Janie Hickok Siess

  Jill Murray thought she was leading a perfectly happy life with her husband, Seth, and three-year-old daughter. Railing against the domesticity into which they have set tled, Seth can’t understand why Jill doesn’t see that he is suffocatingly unhappy. So Seth simply walks away, leaving Jill financially and emotionally destitute, and fully responsible for raising their daughter.
  
  In response, Jill does what any mother in those circumstances would: She figures out how to survive . . . step by step, day by day. Not without anxiety. Not without worry. Not without anger and resentment toward the man she loved and she believed loved her, their child, and their life together. And not without subjugating her own needs for the sake of her daughter's. She doesn't date, she doesn't buy nice clothes for or take proper care of herself. She can't afford to hire someone to perform routine maintenance on the modest house she has managed to purchase in a marginal neighborhood that is on the cusp of becoming trendy.
  
  As the story opens, it is clear that Jill has lived every day of the last seven years on a precipice -- waiting for whatever comes next. And she is understandably tired of it. But effecting change in your life is difficult when you have a ten-year-old who is completely dependent upon you -- only you.
  
  Cook creates thoroughly believable main characters with whom readers can readily identify. Anastasia, in particular, is appropriately, exasperatingly, charmingly precocious. She is ten going on thirty, as are most girls that age. Concerned about what her friends will think if she lets her mother kiss her good-bye before she gets on the school bus, she longs to fit in with the other kids as she perpetually fusses with her headband and writes with a pink or purple feathery pen. She tests her mother in the ways that only a bright and cheeky ten-year-old can. Bemused, Jill had come to love Anastasia's "little acts of rebellion. I read them as signs of progress, evidence that she had not only survived, but was finally starting to thrive. She had friends at school. Her grades were good. She loved to read." And, in Jill's estimation, "[t:]he last thing either of us needed was for Seth to come back into our lives and screw them all up again." Of course, he does.
  
  Wisely, Cook crafts a convincing portrait of a little girl poised to enter puberty who still longs for and misses her daddy. The story would have been far less satisfying had Anastasia been portrayed as a stereotypically angry, rebellious teenager and Jill the harried mother desperate to communicate with an out-of-control child. Because Anastasia is ten, rather than 16 or 17, Jill's instinctual desire to protect her just a bit longer is understandable, So Jill's ethically questionable method of assessing her daughter's need to have her father back in her life is justifiable and, from the reader's perspective, forgivable.
  
  What makes Cook's writing remarkable and elevates Seven Year Switch from just another enjoyable story to a memorable one, is the book's hilariously authentic cast of supporting players. Like one of my all-time favorite authors, Janet Evanovich, Cook injects her narrative with nuances and details that make the most tangential characters, even if they only appear in the story for a few brief words or paragraphs, come alive in the reader's mind just as vibrantly as those central to the story. From the opening paragraphs in which Cook describes Jill's eclectic menagerie of students at the community center through the last few chapters when the reader meets the group of women with whom Jill finally gets away to Costa Rica for a surfing adventure, every character has his/her own unique voice and is expertly positioned to propel the dialogue and plot forward at a crisp clip.
  
  Perhaps most intriguing is Cynthia, Jill's next-door neighbor. Cynthia wears flirty little tennis outfits, has her hair and nails done regularly, is a some-time interior decorator, and owns a complete set of the "pinkest of pink" power tools that she loans Jill in their silver and pink case resembling a "heftier version of the Barbie briefcase that Anastasia had talked me into buying her a few years ago." Jill wanted to hate Cynthia because she "oozed entitlement from every well-peeled and dermabraded pore, but I also kind of wanted to be Cynthia. Somehow I thought I'd do a better job of it." Every woman has at least one friend like Cynthia, whose life isn't quite as perfect as, at first glance, it appears. Full of puns and a few unfulfilled dreams of her own, it becomes impossible for the reader to hate her, either. By the end of the book, Cynthia becomes uproariously endearing.
  
  The least developed character is Seth, but that does not detract from the story. Rather, the omission keeps the reader's attention focused on Jill and her metamorphosis. Thankfully, Jill doesn't spend a lot of time trying to understand why Seth left her and Anastasia, even when he offers a lame explanation. His abrupt departure, reminiscent of Berger's break-up with Carrie on Sex and the City, and equally sudden reappearance, don't send Jill into prolonged hand-wringing, "where-did-I-fail-you?" or "how-did-I-miss-the-signs?" fits of soul-searching. The truth is that Seth is a coward and Jill is entitled to be unremorsefully furious with him for the rest of her life. But Jill is determined to be the best mother she can be and when Seth wanders back into their lives, hoping to pick up where they left off seven years before, Jill continues to elevate her daughter's needs over her own. Coward or not, Seth is Anastasia's father, after all.
  
  Jill informs Anastasis that her father has returned, and the little girl demands to speak with him immediately. Jill relates that "[i:]f I'd had to take a test to define the emotions I was feeling, I would have failed miserably." Any parent who has, purely for the sake of their child, endured holidays, birthdays, and other occasions in the company of an ex-spouse or partner when they would rather have omitted his/her from the guest list can readily relate to Jill's frustration and jealousy when Anastasia becomes completely enchanted with the parent who has been inexcusably absent from her life. But for her daughter's sake, Jill faces the moment she has dreaded for seven years: Anastasia's reunion with her father.
  
  "I tiptoed into the living room. Anastasia was sitting on the couch, flipping through the album of photos of Seth.
  
  'Hey,' I whispered. 'How did it go?'
  
  She smiled up at me. 'We’re having a welcome home party. I’m going to make the decorations, and Dad’s going to bring the presents. What do you want to do?'
  
  I looked at her. I twisted my mouth into a smile.
  
  Scream, I thought. While the daughter and the father plan their reunion, what the mother wants to do is scream."
  
  It is said that every seven years one becomes a completely new person. The dramatic tension in Cook's story emanates from Jill's being forced to decide if she wants to revert to the person she was seven years ago when her world was turned upside down by Seth's departure, or reinvent herself. With Seth's return, things cannot remain as they have been for the past seven years as she and Anastasia found their way together. Jill loved Seth but she has to decide if she still loves him or can love him again, despite what he did. Now that he has been reintroduced to Anastasia, he will remain a part of both of their lives. And there is Billy, with whom Jill has tentatively embarked upon a refreshing new relationship. A surprising twist causes her to question whether she can continue her professional or personal relationship with Billy.
  
  Jill is the "everywoman" in this piece. Every parent who reads Seven Year Switch better buckle up before reading the first page because he/she is going on an emotional roller coaster ride along with Jill. It is impossible not to empathize with Jill's heartbreak at seeing her daughter long for her absent father and, when he resurfaces, her desire to shield Anastasia as she thrusts herself headlong into a renewed relationship with him. (What if he hurts them again?) It is easy to appreciate why Jill, humiliated and embarrassed, isolated herself from her friends, and threw her full energy and attention into raising her daughter after being rejected so emphatically and cruelly by an outwardly loving husband. And every woman who has girlfriends upon whom she relies for companionship, honesty, and unconditional support will rejoice when Jill finally acknowledges that she deserves her own Great Girlfriend Getaway. Every great book boasts at least one character with whom the readers identify and for whom they cheer. In Seven Year Switch, that character is Jill.
  
  Seven Year Switch is ultimately an exploration of what it means to be selfless and forgiving, while safeguarding one's own emotional boundaries, along with those of the people who depend upon us for care and protection. Few people will find themselves in a situation as unusual as having a spouse return after going missing for seven years, but readers will relate to Jill's determination to do what is best for her daughter, as well as the morass of unresolved feelings Jill must sort through as she struggles to discern what comes next in her life -- and her child's. The pages of Seven Year Switch flip quickly, but its theme and characters resonate long after the book has been put back into the beach tote with the sunscreen, sunflower seeds, and extra towels while the reader contemplates the incoming tide. It is, as Allison Winn Scotch, author of The One That I Want observed, "a perfect beach read," sure to become a summertime classic!
  
• 
  Penny

  I had enjoyed Must Love Dogs, so I thought I would give this book a try. Every once in a while a good "chick lit" book is a great diversion, and this was. Jill is a single mom who has been raising her little girl alone after her husband without warning left seven years earlier to pursue his interest in traveling to exotic places, in this case a stint in the Peace Corps in Africa. Poof! No more Seth. Add Joni, a sympathetic older woman who helps Jill by employing her in her travel agency ... Great Girlfriend Getaways, Cynthia, a ditzy next door neighbor who becomes Jill's traveling companion and friend, Billy, the engaging owner of a bicycle rental company with designs on new business in Japan who hires Jill to advise him on Japanese etiquette, and Anastasia, her ten-year-old daughter who yearns for a relationship with her dad, and you have the makings of an appealing story. I'll keep the spoilers out of this review. Suffice it to say, if you enjoy cooking, travel, and escapist fiction, it's a fun read.