The Wildwater Walking Club

Finished September 4

The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook

This novel follows Noreen (Nora) Kelly from the morning after she takes a buyout from her job in Boston. She's worked for Balancing Act Shoes for the past eighteen years, most recently as Senior Manager of Brand Identity, and they'd recently been taken over by another company. The manager in the buyout company who convinced her to take the buyout was a man she'd recently been involved with, and she discovers quickly that he has now dumped her. In response, one of her final acts is to use her employee discount to buy up a bunch of shoes in her size.

And she begins to walk. 

First, one her own, walking the paths of her neighbourhood. Then with her next door neighbour Tess, the mother of a teen daughter and a primary school teacher. They soon add another woman, Rosie, the owner of a nearby lavender farm. As the women walk, and talk, and figure out their futures, they grow closer a real friendships are forged. 

Nora also goes to some meetings included in her buyout package, with a firm called Fresh Horizons. There, she meets others going through a significant life change, and makes a friend. 

When her mother comes for a visit from Florida, more connections are made, and Nora finds herself finding a new purpose.

This book is a reminder that there is a life beyond work, and a need within us all for true friendship. 

I liked Nora and her attitude, the rooster named Rod Stewart and his zeal for breakfast cereal, and the clothesline plotline.