If the Shoe Fits

If the Shoe Fits weaves together the stories of five women and a teenage girl, all in different stages of their lives, on one spring day in 2007. Each chapter is written from one of the six character’s points of view and mentions a shoe choice. No matter whether a woman gains weight or what other changes take place in her life, shoes always fit. Yet If the Shoe Fits shows us that a woman’s shoe choice mirrors her stage of life. And what once fit her well may no longer suit her, so she must shop for another pair. In the course of a single day, all six characters interact in some way—some dramatically, some only in passing. Yet each woman learns that she has to be comfortable in her own shoes before she can appreciate another woman’s style. As the scene shifts from a Midwestern courthouse, to the mall, to a middle school and to a restaurant, each character discovers something about love and loss, about herself and other women.

Sharon, a single mother pushing forty, hasn’t yet recovered from her divorce, but now finds herself fighting for custody of her fourteen-year-old daughter, Tessa. Fiftyish college professor Carol, Tessa’s stepmother, is determined to help her new husband Wes gain custody of Tessa, at almost any cost. Stephanie, twenty-nine, is Wes’s capable single attorney who is trying to balance personal relationships with her fierce need for independence and material success. Madeline, a married mother of two and part-time college professor, is Sharon’s thirty-something best friend. Loyal but overcommitted, she just might turn out to be Carol’s worst nemesis. Adele, Carol’s sixty-year-old therapist, must balance her clients’ needs with the demands of her increasingly forgetful husband and aging mother. If the Shoe Fits is a book for women of all ages who want wit and style, but who also crave heart and soul.