The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow

As we move to the end of August, I am squeezing in those last few summer reads–strictly for entertainment.  The Widow Waltz certainly fits that bill.  Georgia Waltz is recently widowed.  When you meet her husband Ben in the first chapter, he seems almost too good to be a real character.  He is charming and gracious to everyone, able to solve each crisis and able to provide a pretty charmed life for his wife and two daughters.  What could he possibly do wrong?

Georgia and her daughters have come to assume a comfortable and struggle-free lifestyle, so they are completely shocked to discover that Ben has left them mortgaged to the max and almost penniless.  What follows is their pick themselves up by the bootstraps tale.  Georgia and her daughters all need to figure out who they are and who they want to become, without Ben to smooth their path.  Their challenges are universal; the twist is that they have gone through life seemingly without any character building moments.

While maybe not my favorite of beach reads this summer, the characters did grow on me as they transformed themselves in a made for tv movie sort of way.  Despite the loss that starts the book, it isn’t a sad story and is worth checking out for that last trip to the beach this season!

The Falmouth Memorial Library does not yet own a copy of The Widow Waltz, but it  can be requested through the Minerva System.