cover image Small Change

Small Change

Sheila Roberts, . . St. Martin's/Griffin, $13.99 (340pp) ISBN 978-0-312-59447-3

The three friends in Roberts's (Angel Lane ) light read are happily reminiscent of Sarah Strohmeyer's The Penny Pinchers Club . These Heart Lake, Wash., neighbors become divas living on a dime when harsh economic times hit. Still recovering from a miscarriage, Tiffany Turner is a shopaholic who becomes frantic when her out-of-control credit card spending prompts her husband, Brian, to leave her. Rachel Green is a struggling divorcée with two children who's just lost her teaching job and professes to not need a man until she meets Chad Alvarez. And stay at-home wife and former musician Jess, when informed by her banker husband that he might lose his job, wonders if she can be a rocker chick again. To cope, the “Small Change Club” members decide to simplify their lifestyles and take control of their future. Homing in on issues many readers can identify with, Roberts's women search for practical solutions to a common challenge with humor and froth. (Apr.)