Covet
Pages: 320
Publication Date: September 17, 2013
It has been over a year since Tracey Garvis Graves took the publishing world by storm with her self-published e-book,
On The Island. It was one of my favorite books of 2012 and like so many others, I was eagerly awaiting her next book.
Covet takes place in the affluent suburbs of Kansas City. Claire Canton and her husband Chris seem to have it all to the casual observer, a great home in a great neighborhood with great friends, but the last year has been a real trial for them. Chris lost his sales job with the recession and despite his best efforts he was unable to find a job. Claire and Chris burned through their savings paying their bills and keeping up the medical insurance necessary because of Claire's Type 1 diabetes. The stress has taken a toll on Chris, Claire, their marriage and their children. Now here it is a year later and Chris has started a job that will take him on the road all week every week. While the job is an answer to their prayers, the travel time is just another blow to their marriage. Enter the very handsome, very single Police Officer, Daniel Rush. They meet when he pulls Claire over for a taillight and he keeps showing up in random places and in her thoughts. Claire and Daniel develop a deep, meaningful friendship, but will Claire be able to draw that line in the sand that keeps their relationship at just friendship?
Covet is a novel about a marriage on the rocks. Thousands of women all over the country are in marriages that are running on auto-pilot and that is exactly what Claire and Chris have in their marriage. When Chris lost his job they spent all of their energy to hold on financially that they lost their intimacy, their connection, their strength. Getting that back is critical to Claire's happiness, but it does not seem to be for Chris. While I do think that
Covet lacks the intensity that was portrayed in
On the Island, it was a great novel to read. I loved how the author included the other wives in Claire's neighborhood. Although all of them appeared to be living charmed lives, each one of them have struggles. From an alcohol abuse problem to infertility and gambling issues, it was good to see that Claire wasn't the only one with struggles.
Bottom line,
Covet is a novel about the ebbs and flows of marriage. The ups, the downs, the pendulum that swings one way or the other. The mark of a successful marriage is how a couple works through those ebb and flows. I think that this novel will strike a chord with women of all ages and walks of life. Life is not perfect and neither is marriage, and
Covet makes that fact abundantly clear. Give it a read and let me know what you think.
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