The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship

by Lisa Verge Higgins

Overview

A grave loss changes the lives of three friends in ways they never imagined in this warm and heartrending debut novel.

What makes a wife a lover?
For Kate, the spark went out of her marriage long ago but her husband doesn't seem to notice. Their role as parents consumes their lives so they need to rekindle the romance they once shared.

What makes a woman a mother?
For Jo, a high-powered career has led her to believe that she doesn't have a single maternal instinct. When an orphan unexpectedly enters her life, she is forced to confront her own unhappy childhood and the walls it has built around her heart.

What makes a man the love of your life?
For Sarah, home is the steamy jungles of Africa while the man of her dreams waits in the air-conditioned confines of Los Angeles. Her longing for this man from the past is blinding her to a new love standing right in front of her.

What these women all have in common is a friend with a generous soul, an irrepressible spirit- and a serious illness. In her final letters, Rachel raises one last question: What makes a friend live in our hearts forever?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446575126
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	01/26/2011
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	834,747
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

While studying for her Ph.D. in chemistry, RITA finalist Lisa Verge Higgins penned twelve romance novels under her maiden name. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, an attorney, and their children.

Editorial Reviews

Higgins's (Heaven in His Arms) life-affirming novel reduces a fearless foursome to three when the adventurous Rachel Braun dies of cancer at 38. Though Rachel kept her diagnosis a secret from her friends, she wrote each a challenge to be read after her death. Kate Jansen, a married homemaker with three children, is told to skydive ("you're overwhelmed by your life," Rachel writes). In Rachel's view, globe-trotting Doctors Without Borders nurse Sarah Pollard is blinded to love in her grief over her ex: "You need to win him back, or finally say good-bye." But it's Bobbie "Jo" Marcum, a single, commitment-phobic businesswoman, of whom Rachel makes the greatest request, by leaving her custody of her seven-year-old daughter: "Take Grace." Large and small, their decisions affect them all in transformative ways, as when Kate accompanies Sarah to find her ex, now a doctor living in India. Higgins's romantic tendencies (she's penned several romance novels) inform the proceedings; with her mainstream debut, she creates a happy reminder that life is all about taking risks. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Get the first 'Best Read' of 2011...a love story about what it really means to be a friend."—Debbie Haupt, B&N General Fiction Book Club

"Higgins writes with grace and humor, reminding us to hold tight to the ones we love."—Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners

"The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship is a lovely novel with moments of deeply moving insight into what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a friend. Read it and share it with your own friends-you'll be glad you did!"—Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Beachcombers

"Full of humor, love, and life lessons, this is an uplifting and satisfying novel that lingers long after the last page."—Elizabeth Noble, bestselling author of The Reading Group and The Girl Next Door

"[A] happy reminder that life is all about taking risks."—Publishers Weekly

"Offering words of wisdom from a dying friend, The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship inspires us to focus on what's really important in our lives."—Liza Palmer, international bestselling author of A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents

"An amazing novel of love, friendship, and community. A truly joyous read that marks an impressive debut."—Jane Porter, author of Flirting with Forty and She's Gone Country

"Poignant, romantic, and funny...about the need for our closest friends to occasionally give us a shove in the right direction when we've lost our way. You'll recognize yourself in these women. I loved it."—Claire LaZebnik, author of If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now

"Expertly woven together by Lisa Verge Higgins...simply but beautifully written...the common thread is Rachel, who has given the best gift a friend can give - a second chance."—RomanceJunkies.com

From the Publisher

At the urging of a dying friend, three women take life-altering risks.

As the novel opens, Rachel has already died of cancer. It is a cosmic joke that Rachel, mountain climber, base jumper, sky diver, lived a life of extreme adventure unscathed, only to succumb to an ordinary disease. After her death, her best friends receive letters with a last request: Kate, an over-scheduled soccer mom, is to go sky-diving; Sarah, a relief worker in Africa, is to track down the doctor she once loved; and career woman Jo, man-killer, is to become legal guardian to Rachel's 7-year-old daughter Gracie. After Kate sky-dives for the second time, she mentions it to husband Paul, who is none too pleased that his dependable wife is taking afternoons off to risk her life. But she loves it, and it makes her see how stiff her marriage has become, how tied to her children's lives she is, how she has somehow disappeared. The strain on her marriage is solidified when she decides to accompany Sarah to India to track down Dr. Colin O'Rourke. Fourteen years ago in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, the two fell in love, he left, and Sarah has been holding a torch for the god-like doctor ever since. Finding him is Rachel's last request, so once and for all Sarah can move on. When Sarah and Kate arrive in India, Sam, a dashing colleague of Sarah's in Africa, is there to greet them. It is no coincidence—he's in love with Sarah and has followed her, but she only has room for Colin. When they eventually meet, it seems he's been carrying a torch too. In the midst of this exotic romance, Jo is in New York with Gracie, as she tries to make a home (baby gates? Mac and cheese? Barbie?) for a traumatized orphan. Of course the women learn their lessons—live life more fully—but only Jo's challenge is vital: to learn how to become a mother.

Higgins balances humor and a touch of pathos to deliver an amiable tale of friendship.

Kirkus Reviews