Leslie Carroll, Play Dates

Play Dates

Leslie Carroll

Avon, Jan 2005, $12.95, 376 pp.

ISBN: 0060596066

Twenty something Claire Marsh raises her almost-seven-year-old-going-on-thirty, second grader Zoe by herself since her spouse dumped the two of them for an older woman. Helping or hindering Claire, depending on your perspective, is her older sister MiMi, Zoe's role model in living life to the fullest with dates and other happenings. While Zoe has PLAY DATES with friends along Manhattan's Upper West Side, Claire plays child escort and wonders when she might have a date like big sis and little daughter.

Although her parents cover her Central Park apartment, Claire finds work as a museum tour guide, her first income maker that is discounting her parents and spouse. She does a good job but that interferes with working with Zoe on the private school projects, though the latter normally means working alone while the kid has fun. Claire figures that when she grows up she wants to be just like Zoe, a successful social butterfly, but first the next tour group needs escorting.

PLAY DATES is an amusing chick lit tale starring a delightful protagonist bemoaning her lot in life (she would complain in heaven) yet no doubt loves her daughter, her sister, and her parents, and insures Zoe is raised in a proper caring manner. The storyline is amusing whether it concentrates on Claire's lament or follows her leading a tour group. Though there is little real crisis as her family provide a warm, loving safety net for the Marsh females, readers will enjoy Claire's Manhattan escapades and the black book coda containing a Leslie Carroll interview of her.

Harriet Klausner