Rowena’s review for Baggage Claim by Tanya Michna.

Grade: 3.75 out of 5

Two women with nothing in common except look-alike luggage embark on a journey that will transform their lives…

When Beth Overton, a stay-at-home mom, learns that her husband has fallen short on his part of their marriage bargain, she’s forced to rethink hers. But first she’s got to retrieve the luggage she’s accidentally switched with someone else… Carly Frazer, a divorced history professor, keeps telling herself she’s got her life completely under control…until it falls completely apart.

With a major career move in doubt and her recently widowed mother moving in, Carly’s got troubles galore—and another woman’s suitcase. When Beth and Carly meet in a hotel bar to switch bags, they are two very different women who never guess that a twist of fate, and their subsequent unlikely friendship, are about to take their lives in surprising new directions..

Have you ever read a book where the story was really slow to unfold? I mean, the characters were well rounded, the storyline was interesting and yet everything moved at a snail’s pace? For me, that’s how it was with this book.

This story is about two women who meet because they took each others luggage and their lives kind of merge together.

Beth, a woman who’s been married to her husband for quite a long time is going through some marital struggles and is finding out just what kind of woman she was and what kind of woman she wants to be. The secrets that her husband has been keeping from her has torn them apart and though she wants to work things out with him, she needs space to find out for herself, what she really wants.

Then we have Carly. Carly who is divorced and colder than a bucket of ice in Alaska in the wintertime. She’s got this ginormous wall built up around her to protect her from ever getting hurt and that wall cost her, her husband, her marriage and might be costing her, her tenure at work.

Watching these two women battle their circumstances and grow into women that they both wanted to be was great to read about. I enjoyed seeing the changes come about in both of their characters because they were changing for themselves and they were making a better impact on their own lives all the while, impacting those around them. Carly with the young girl from work and Beth with her daughter and her husband. I enjoyed getting to know Daniel and watching him grow to love Carly again and to see the patience he had with Carly’s mother, Helene made him so perfect and so right for Carly. I also enjoyed getting to know Joy and seeing the strong relationship between her and Beth. They were a delight to read about and I was happy with the way Beth handled pretty much everything where Joy was concerned. The overall story was a good one.

Some things I didn’t like about the book was of course, Allen. I detested him right from the very beginning and I kept hoping and praying that Beth would not go back to him because he was such an ass. Even when they went on their date and Allen was waxing on strong about his meetings and all of that, it just didn’t seem sincere and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. Helene was another character that drove me up the wall because her constant criticism of Carly drove me bat shit crazy because 1) Helene was staying in Carly’s house and 2) She should’ve been the last person to talk about anything considering what a doormat she was where Carly’s father was. She drove me up the wall and I didn’t see any personal growth from her throughout the book so to me, that her made her utterly dislikeable.

The ending was a bit rushed in my opinion, it felt like so much time was spent on going through Carly and Beth’s problems with everyone around them and then the whole book was summed up and resolved in the last like 10 pages. I would have liked more to the ending, more than what we got but overall, I did enjoy this book and I think other Tanya Michna fans will too.

This book is available from NAL. You can buy it here or here in e-format.