Lucy Clare has written a gift for women over forty: an absolute gem of a book that depicts with refreshing honesty and dignity a woman who won't ever be confused with Ally McBeal.

The week of her fiftieth birthday would always be one to remember. First Lydia "Liddy" Claver lost her teaching job. Then she learned that her husband of thirty years was having an affair with one of her friends. But all that paled to the discovery that, she was not, as she had thought, menopausal, but instead in the third trimester of pregnancy. Mustering her courage, Liddy must reconcile the impending arrival and its ramifications to the husband she loves (but hasn't slept with in five years), to her three grown children, and above all, herself.

Finding herself in a situation where nearly everyone is willing to offer her an opinion, but no one is willing to consider hers, Liddy, six months pregnant, sets off on a journey that starts in sorrow and confusion and ends - with complications all along the way - with Hope.

Completely captivating, Hoping for Hope introduces an honest-to-goodness storyteller in author Lucy Clare. Beyond a splendid talent for both dialogue and character, Clare has devised an unforgettable plot that will have readers buzzing and wondering exactly what is going to happen as this highly original novel of love, family, and obligation carries them to its end.