NEW RELEASE
Claudia's Big Break - Lisa Heidke (2011)
Claudia has just scored the holiday break she desperately needs. Marcus - her boss and married lover - is sending her on a trip to Greece. All she has to do is deliver an envelope to one of his business contacts, Con, in Athens, and then she is free to soak up the sun on Santorini island. With Marcus forking out for two weeks accommodation - his guilty payoff over the end of their relationship - Claudia invites along her two best friends, Tara and Sophie. But Con seems to be a slippery character - and her piece-of-cake business transaction never seems to eventuate. Heading off to Santorini, she meets up again with an Australian traveller called Jack. But surely Claudia didn't go all the way to the Greek isles to have a fling with someone from home? Meanwhile Tara, a magazine writer, is hoping the trip will provide all the inspiration she needs for her novel, while Sophie is wondering about the state of her marriage and whether she's cut out to be a mother to her young son. With its glorious setting and enticing plot about women on the brink of 40 weighing up their lives, I had high hopes for this third novel from Heidke. But with characters I just didn't relate to and the oh-so predictable mystery subplot, it was all too tempting to take a break from reading it.
Lisa Heidke's third novel, Claudia's Big Break, is about a woman who takes off to a Greek island with her best friends to take stock of their lives. The summary says: "Claudia Taylor's life is a mess. Her 20s and 30s seem to have disappeared in a haze of boring office jobs, unsuitable shags and superficial spending. Her latest disaster? An ill-advised fling. In an attempt to get some perspective on her life, Claudia jets off to glorious Santorini with her two best friends, Tara and Sophie. But it's not long before they're shaking their heads at some of Claudia's shenanigans. Meanwhile, Sophie and Tara are wrestling with their own issues. Sophie, a former high-flying career woman, is struggling with being a stay-at-home mother and her husband's nasty ex-wife. Tara, meanwhile, is sick of her dead-end job and trying to write a novel. For Claudia and her friends, life will never be the same after their much-needed holiday in paradise." Claudia's Big Break is out in January.