Northern Virginia; Miami, Florida, and Washington D.C. - Present Day

When did Jack, Claire’s husband, turn into Ward Cleaver -- yelling at their five kids, and always complaining about how she runs the household? What happened to the sweet Jack whom Claire married and was so in love with? Sunday nights are the worst, because that is the night when Jack and Claire have sex scheduled -- boring sex -- and Claire is less than enthusiastic about the “ordeal” and gets grumpier and grumpier as the time approaches. Their children, similar to Wally and the Beaver Cleaver, get into lots of mischief, and Claire finds that she is the one having to cope with all of the problems. But the most depressing thought is when Claire realizes that she has become June Cleaver!

Claire ruminates about the past when she met and became engaged to Jack, and how crazy they were about each other. When did all the fun go out of their marriage? From out of the past, she receives an email from her old college lover, Todd, whom she almost married until he walked out on her for another woman. They begin an email correspondence. Jack is less than enthusiastic when Claire decides to go with him on one of his business trips to Miami. He tells her he will be much too busy with meetings, but that is not the story the pretty young woman in his office tells her. What will Claire do now?

If you enjoy funny, laugh-out-loud books, stories of women going through mid-life crises, you will enjoy SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER. Although the situations are serious, the author looks at them with such a comedic bent that readers will laugh, even when the situation is somewhat grim. Written in first person, most of the book is what Claire is thinking, and how she compares Jack to Ward Cleaver, but we get little indication of what Jack is feeling. We read the emails back and forth between Claire and Todd, and wonder -- did Claire marry the wrong guy, or will she find the fun-loving man she married?

Well written and well paced, SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER is a romp and a lot of fun -- it is a book readers are sure to enjoy.

Marilyn Heyman