Single in Suburbia    by Wendy Wax Order:  USA  Can Bantam, 2006 (2006) Paperback      Reviewed by Martina Bexte Amanda Sheridan is shocked and angry when her husband decides to have a mid life crisis and abandons her 'like a Volvo station wagon with about eight thousand miles on it'. Anger turns to fury when Rob shows up with at a weekend baseball game with his new Teen People girlfriend, Tiffany, who parades around in all her 'tight chassis, glove leather glory'. Seething over the way her husband is embarrassing her and their two children, Amanda has an epiphany. Their marriage is over! Even if Rob does come to his senses and come crawling back, she'll never accept him back into her life. The next day she makes an early appointment with the best divorce lawyer in town. Her second round of shock occurs when Amanda's lawyer announces that Rob's been stealing money from clients to cover some bad investments. This spells big legal trouble for Rob and likely little or no settlement for Amanda and the kids. They may even have to sell the house. But this is where she draws a line in the sand - she's promised the kids they'll never leave their home or their friends. But how is Amanda going to pay the huge mortgage and all the other expenses incurred in running a household. All she is really expert at is housecleaning. Maid for You starts out as a way for Amanda to make ends meet doing what she does best. But her business venture soon becomes much more than that - she begins to realize that ingenuity, resourcefulness and hard work are good for the soul, no matter what her neighbors might think of her. Soon her two friends, Brooke and Candace, become her 'partners in grime'. Donning disguises and questionable French accents these three unlikely friends pick up much more than dirty laundry while inside their friends' and neighbors' homes. And when Amanda is hired to clean the house of the neighborhood's most eligible bachelor, retired baseball phenom Hunter James, things really start cooking and not just in the love department. Someone else has her eye on Hunter and she'll do anything to get him - even if it means exposing big haired and busty cleaning lady, 'Solange de Papillon', and ruining her business and her reputation. Wendy Wax has come up with another winner in Single in Suburbia. This story satisfies on two levels: it's a truthful depiction of suburban life and filled with plenty of humor, particularly the conversations between Amanda, Brooke and Candace, as they begin to see the true colors of some of their so-called friends - and especially when they don their French Maid disguises. On a more serious note though, it's the story of three women, each with separate issues. Amanda needs to prove to herself that she can support her family and get on with her life; Brooke needs to overcome her past and some trust issues or lose the man she loves, and Candace must show her domineering mother that it's time she let her daughter live her own life. Wax does a great job with each sub-plot, but Amanda's story remains the focus. Single in Suburbia is a well-written, fun and thoroughly engaging story. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Romance books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews