After her divorce from her cheating husband is finalised, Claire leaves Denver for a new life in Chicago, the city where she’d always dreamed of living before she married John.
It soon becomes obvious that Claire has spent the twenty-three years of her marriage in a gilded cage. Sure, she’s had the successful husband and the membership at the right clubs, going to the right salon and eating the right number of calories per day.
But she hasn’t lived.
She hasn’t been given the opportunity to make her own choices, make her own mistakes, make her own life.
And worse, she doesn’t know it.
At least, not at first.
When she moves to Chicago, Claire makes a list of the things she wants to do to get a life. Simple things, like make new friends and find a job she loves and and try new foods (I can’t imagine reaching adulthood in a multicultural developed country without having at least tried Indian or Thai or Mediterranean food). But the most poignant line is this:
I want a place where I can fit in. I want a place where I belong.
Claire should be with her husband, the father of her child, but he’s the one who has spent twenty-three years telling her what to do yet failing to allow her to spread her wings and actually live. He’s also the one who breaks the relationship, giving Claire no choice but to leave.
Claire rents an apartment she found online, and soon meets some of her neighbours, including the elderly Lorraine who’s a YouTuber, and the handsome Miles, who turns out to be her landlord.
Dating is something else on her list, so she signs up for an online dating site, which results in some truly memorable dates (note to self: memorable is not the same as good).
Okay, so there were a couple of scenes I thought were overdone and one plot point which didn’t make any logical sense.
(Yes, I know it’s easy to mix up salt and sugar if you don’t taste them. But what bakery owner decants sugar into a jar when they’ll be using it by the bagful? And what bakery owner buys as much salt as sugar when most cookie or muffin recipes call for around a teaspoon of salt for every cup of sugar?)
But those odd scenes didn’t detract from the important messages: living the life we were meant to live … which may be different from the life we are living. But we have to be brave enough to step outside the reality we know and are comfortable in, and discover the real world. For Christians, that’s discovering and living God’s plan for our lives.
Brighter than Before is an inspiring call to rethink our lives and make sure they’re the lives we should be living, all wrapped up in a fun story with a healthy romance.
Recommended for rom-com fans.
Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About the Author
Courtney Walsh is a novelist, theatre director, and playwright. She writes small town romance and women’s fiction while juggling the performing arts studio and youth theatre she owns with her husband. She is the author of thirteen novels. Her debut, A Sweethaven Summer, hit the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists and was a Carol Award finalist. Her novel Just Let Go won the Carol in 2019, and three of her novels have also been Christy-award finalists. A creative at heart, Courtney has also written three craft books and several musicals. She lives in Illinois with her husband and three children.
Find Courtney Walsh online at:
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About Brighter than Before
Life has a way of changing your path–and Claire Karadec certainly didn’t plan on a fork in the road in her forties.
After a painfully public discovery shatters her marriage, along with her picture-perfect, country club life, Claire finds herself suddenly single and faced with a blank page for a future. On that page she writes a simple list that reads like equal parts dare and daydream–Move to a new city. Make a real friend. Get a job I love–and she vows to accomplish every single one.
Before she can talk herself out of it, she takes a step of faith, puts her old life in the rearview mirror, and leases an apartment in Chicago, the city that has always had her heart. This one step sends Claire on a journey of self-discovery, giving her the courage to conquer her fears, one checklist item at a time, and showing her that life can be a whole lot brighter than she imagined.
She rediscovers a love for baking, stumbles into new friendships, and even allows her daughter, Minnie, to create a dating profile and choose her dates for her. Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is Miles, the charming, off-limits neighbor whose kindness makes it hard to remember why he’s off-limits at all.
Between late-night journaling, disastrous first dates, great big lessons and priceless small victories, Claire learns to quiet the voice telling her she wasn’t enough and listens to the one that asks the harder question . . .
What do I really want?
As old expectations loosen their grip, Claire discovers that belonging isn’t a place you’re invited to–it’s a life you build one brave choice at a time. And the sweetest things often show up when you finally get out of your own way.
Find Brighter than Before online at:
Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads | Koorong
Becca Kinzer lives in Springfield, Illinois where she works as a critical care nurse. When she’s not taking care of sick patients or reminding her husband and two kids that frozen chicken nuggets is a gourmet meal, she enjoys making up lighthearted stories with serious laughs. She is a 2018 ACFW First Impressions Contest winner, a 2019 Genesis Contest winner, 2021 Cascade Award winner, and all-around champion coffee drinker.
Emily Dana Botrous lives in San Diego, California with her husband and their four children. She lived in 10 states before she settled on the West Coast where she plans to stay for awhile. She started writing short stories at age 10 and studied English in college. The only thing she enjoys more than writing is motherhood.