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Cougars
Caroline Walker has it all. At 42, her immaculate looks and toned body are of a woman half her age. She's a successful entrepreneur, and juggles her career with domestic bliss: wife of City trading sensation Les Walker, and mother to their teenage daughter Rachel. But when Caroline learns that Les has been having an affair, her perfect world falls apart.
Caroline is suddenly single - something she hasn't been in a very long time. With the help of Maryanne, her outgoing and ex-Hollywood starlet friend, Caroline's life is transformed into a glamorous social whirl as she discovers her missing twenties. And the young men she should have been dating then, too . . .
But is Caroline ready to put the past behind her? And can true love really strike twice?
Caroline is suddenly single - something she hasn't been in a very long time. With the help of Maryanne, her outgoing and ex-Hollywood starlet friend, Caroline's life is transformed into a glamorous social whirl as she discovers her missing twenties. And the young men she should have been dating then, too . . .
But is Caroline ready to put the past behind her? And can true love really strike twice?
- GenresChick Lit
381 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2011
5 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Claire Irvin
8 books3 followersClaire Irvin is one of the UK’s most successful magazine editors. She is currently editor of SHE magazine. She has previously been editor of Sugar and ELLEGirl, editor-at-large of Grazia, acting editor of Company, and has worked at Red and InStyle. Claire lives with her husband and daughter in Cambridgeshire.
Follow her on Twitter @ClaireIrvAtSHE or @ClaireIrvin
Follow her on Twitter @ClaireIrvAtSHE or @ClaireIrvin
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 17, 2011
In the past year or so the term ‘cougar’ has become increasingly popular, thanks to the fact Demi Moore married someone so much younger than her and laterally because of Cougar Town, Courtney Cox’s new show. It seems that everywhere you look there’s a hint of the cougar going around and obviously, with her debut novel, Claire Irvin has attempted to tap into the fad. Now I must admit, I find the term cougar to be very off-putting. As a twenty-something it just sounds such a horrible term for a woman. It also obviously starts the age old debate that if a man dates someone so young he’s a cradle-snatcher but if a woman does it she’s a cougar? However, getting back to the book, I was looking forward to reading it and when I received a copy, the cover was very eye-catching with how red it is so I decided to give it a read.
Cougars opens with a Prologue, set in November, as Caroline rushes into a pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test before finding out she’s pregnant. It ends with the line “By whom?” (referring to who she’s pregnant by) and we then go back nine months previously to begin the story proper as Caroline finds out her husband has been cheating on her before the subsequently split up. It’s a very intriguing opening to the book and I was quickly hooked. Despite wanting to read the book, I didn’t entirely think it would be my kind of book. I was proven nicely wrong, it has to be said, as I found myself reading the pages rather quick, enjoying Caroline’s new life. When I read the synopsis, I expected Caroline to regress back to being a teenager, and to start sleeping with every man available, because that’s how the official synopsis words it essentially, but that’s not it at all and I was pleasantly surprised at that.
Cougars is very much based on relationships. Caroline’s relationship with her daughter Rachel, her relationship at work and a fledgling relationship with male-model and 19-year-old Adam. But it also focuses on the relationships of Caroline’s friends Esther and Maryanne. Relationships Caroline believes are perfect, but that are actually not as good as she thought as both Esther and Maryanne are cougars, cheating on their husbands with much younger men. I must admit, I didn’t like how both Esther and Maryanne portrayed their relationships and how flippant they were towards cheating on their husbands. I was even more surprised that Caroline, after a brief argument with Maryanne, accepted what they do as the norm despite the fact she separated from her husband for the exact same thing. Surely cheating is cheating, no matter who is doing it? I didn’t entirely understand why Caroline was so blase about it.
The characters were very well written, despite my questions over them. Despite Caroline’s acceptance of what her friends did, I did find myself quite liking her. At forty-two, she isn’t exactly someone I could see myself being friends with but she was very cool for a forty-two-year-old it must be said. Again, despite not agreeing to their lifestyle choices, I did like both Esther and Maryanne, they provided some light relief in their bid to get Caroline up and running again with her life. Rachel is a typical teen, prone to major strops and tantrums, which drove me bananas sometimes although I did find myself thinking that I was probably like her at that age as well. As for Adam, I loved him. He wasn’t what I expected at all, which is a good thing, believe me. I expected him to be cocky and full of himself and all of that, but he wasn’t at all. He was lovely, actually.
A major part of the book is set at Caroline’s office at Sapphires and Rubies and I liked that, not only did it introduce us to those who work around Caroline but it meant we got to see her in action as she came up with new lines for her shop. As the book came to a conclusion, a lot of issues came up, which had the feeling of just being crammed in and I definitely think it would have been better to spread them out during the book a bit more. Especially the one featuring Esther, that could have really developed a lot more, but instead it was relegated to the last 50 pages of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the read, it wasn’t what I expected at all. Irvin is editor at She magazine (and has worked at many other magazines) and her writing shines through. I’d definitely recommend the book, the synopsis makes it sound way more predatory than it is – the synopsis for me makes Caroline sound very flippant and able to move from man to man and that’s not true. Yes, these girls might be cougars, but that’s not the story, not really. In fact, you could very easily remove all cougar aspects and it would still be a great novel. It’s very much a novel cashing in on the novelty of cougar, but it’s an enjoyable one and one very much worth reading.
Cougars opens with a Prologue, set in November, as Caroline rushes into a pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test before finding out she’s pregnant. It ends with the line “By whom?” (referring to who she’s pregnant by) and we then go back nine months previously to begin the story proper as Caroline finds out her husband has been cheating on her before the subsequently split up. It’s a very intriguing opening to the book and I was quickly hooked. Despite wanting to read the book, I didn’t entirely think it would be my kind of book. I was proven nicely wrong, it has to be said, as I found myself reading the pages rather quick, enjoying Caroline’s new life. When I read the synopsis, I expected Caroline to regress back to being a teenager, and to start sleeping with every man available, because that’s how the official synopsis words it essentially, but that’s not it at all and I was pleasantly surprised at that.
Cougars is very much based on relationships. Caroline’s relationship with her daughter Rachel, her relationship at work and a fledgling relationship with male-model and 19-year-old Adam. But it also focuses on the relationships of Caroline’s friends Esther and Maryanne. Relationships Caroline believes are perfect, but that are actually not as good as she thought as both Esther and Maryanne are cougars, cheating on their husbands with much younger men. I must admit, I didn’t like how both Esther and Maryanne portrayed their relationships and how flippant they were towards cheating on their husbands. I was even more surprised that Caroline, after a brief argument with Maryanne, accepted what they do as the norm despite the fact she separated from her husband for the exact same thing. Surely cheating is cheating, no matter who is doing it? I didn’t entirely understand why Caroline was so blase about it.
The characters were very well written, despite my questions over them. Despite Caroline’s acceptance of what her friends did, I did find myself quite liking her. At forty-two, she isn’t exactly someone I could see myself being friends with but she was very cool for a forty-two-year-old it must be said. Again, despite not agreeing to their lifestyle choices, I did like both Esther and Maryanne, they provided some light relief in their bid to get Caroline up and running again with her life. Rachel is a typical teen, prone to major strops and tantrums, which drove me bananas sometimes although I did find myself thinking that I was probably like her at that age as well. As for Adam, I loved him. He wasn’t what I expected at all, which is a good thing, believe me. I expected him to be cocky and full of himself and all of that, but he wasn’t at all. He was lovely, actually.
A major part of the book is set at Caroline’s office at Sapphires and Rubies and I liked that, not only did it introduce us to those who work around Caroline but it meant we got to see her in action as she came up with new lines for her shop. As the book came to a conclusion, a lot of issues came up, which had the feeling of just being crammed in and I definitely think it would have been better to spread them out during the book a bit more. Especially the one featuring Esther, that could have really developed a lot more, but instead it was relegated to the last 50 pages of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the read, it wasn’t what I expected at all. Irvin is editor at She magazine (and has worked at many other magazines) and her writing shines through. I’d definitely recommend the book, the synopsis makes it sound way more predatory than it is – the synopsis for me makes Caroline sound very flippant and able to move from man to man and that’s not true. Yes, these girls might be cougars, but that’s not the story, not really. In fact, you could very easily remove all cougar aspects and it would still be a great novel. It’s very much a novel cashing in on the novelty of cougar, but it’s an enjoyable one and one very much worth reading.
February 24, 2012
Really good sunbed read, found myself laughing out loud through a lot of it. Just wish the ending told me who the Dad was .... that was the only disappointing thing about it.
July 8, 2021
overall is a nice book but it let me guessing for the ending
March 10, 2011
Caroline Walker has a pretty good life. She’s 42, married to her husband and together they have a gorgeous daughter Rachel who makes them very proud. However, her world quickly falls apart when she finds out husband Les has been having an affair behind her back, and promptly walks out on the marriage with her dignity intact. Caroline is shocked to be single, something she hasn’t done for many years and her best friend Mary-Anne is determined to get her back on the market, even tempting her become a Cougar and hunt down a younger man. Soon Caroline strikes up a friendship with Adam, a young man not much older than her own daughter, but she likes the feeling she gets with her younger man. Is Caroline prepared for the backlash that comes with being a Cougar and can she really put her past behind her for good?
Cougars is author Claire Irvin’s debut novel. Claire actually works as editor for SHE magazine, and has worked on some other high-profile mags too so certainly has some experience in writing for women. The book’s startling red cover ensures it will certainly jump out at people on the book shelves in shops, and I quite like it, it does suit the book well. I was curious to find out how Irvin would portray the theme of Cougars, it certainly does seem to be a popular theme these days, with a television show starring Courtney Cox called Cougar Town also being a popular foray into the topic. I was curious about Irvin would deal with the subject, and so I began to read the book.
I’ll be honest and say when I began the book, I wasn’t especially taken by it. I found it a little slow and hard to get into but I persevered with it and soon I began to get involved in the story and found it picked up to a pace where I found myself enjoying it a lot more. Caroline was a character I quite liked straight away. She is a very strong woman, and she seems to carry on quite well despite her husband’s betrayal. She outwardly handles her break-up quite well, determined to put her business and daughter first and I liked that about her – she doesn’t want her husband to see how much it has knocked her for six that’s she been betrayed. However, I do question some of her actions later in the book which seem at odds with her stance throughout the book which was a bit of a shame. I did enjoy the beginning of the book, Caroline taking a pregnancy test and wondering which man she was pregnant by, then the book returned again to 9 months previous to this prologue to tell us the story of how Caroline got herself into that situation.
Relationships are at the crux of the book, and I expected that Caroline would suddenly be sleeping around London to enjoy her new found singledom but Irvin chose not to go down this route, instead choosing to give Caroline a relationship with a much younger boy, along with all the hassles that it brings with it, including upsetting the dynamic between mother and daughter, and I think Irvin wrote this part especially well. She conveyed young Rachel’s feelings really well and I felt this was a quite realistic. However, I was a little shocked at the other relationships in the books, those of Caroline’s friends Mary Anne and Esther, both of whom are Cougars and enjoying extra-marital relations yet apparently that is okay and Caroline isn’t bothered, despite her own husband’s affair. It seemed a little hypocritical to me but certainly added a different element to the book.
The issues in the book are quite important, especially in the modern world in which we live where a lot of things which once would have been a bit taboo are now far more widely accepted and spoken about, and women in Caroline’s situation is one of them. Irvin deals with the subject really well, not making it anything too over-the-top but believable, and treads carefully around all of the issues too. The problems at Caroline’s work, Sapphires and Rubies, deserved perhaps more significance in the book than they got, and also a harder storyline at the end involving one of Caroline’s friends, but of course these stories do have to take a back seat to the more plot-lead one.
It was an enjoyable read, I was drawn in by Caroline’s life and I liked how the ending was left somewhat open.. I wonder if Irvin will be revisiting Caroline and co once more! Irvin documents Caroline’s insecurities and worries about dating a much younger man very well, and I can certainly imagine that her feelings are those of a lot of older women dating younger men, the worry of what they see in you and that they’re going to run off with someone their own age. This gives the book a hint of realism, and I liked Caroline all the more for it. The book wasn’t at all what I expected and I liked that it was different and perhaps a bit more “grown-up” about the issue. It’s a very strong debut and I’ll look forward to reading more from Claire Irvin in the future.
Cougars is author Claire Irvin’s debut novel. Claire actually works as editor for SHE magazine, and has worked on some other high-profile mags too so certainly has some experience in writing for women. The book’s startling red cover ensures it will certainly jump out at people on the book shelves in shops, and I quite like it, it does suit the book well. I was curious to find out how Irvin would portray the theme of Cougars, it certainly does seem to be a popular theme these days, with a television show starring Courtney Cox called Cougar Town also being a popular foray into the topic. I was curious about Irvin would deal with the subject, and so I began to read the book.
I’ll be honest and say when I began the book, I wasn’t especially taken by it. I found it a little slow and hard to get into but I persevered with it and soon I began to get involved in the story and found it picked up to a pace where I found myself enjoying it a lot more. Caroline was a character I quite liked straight away. She is a very strong woman, and she seems to carry on quite well despite her husband’s betrayal. She outwardly handles her break-up quite well, determined to put her business and daughter first and I liked that about her – she doesn’t want her husband to see how much it has knocked her for six that’s she been betrayed. However, I do question some of her actions later in the book which seem at odds with her stance throughout the book which was a bit of a shame. I did enjoy the beginning of the book, Caroline taking a pregnancy test and wondering which man she was pregnant by, then the book returned again to 9 months previous to this prologue to tell us the story of how Caroline got herself into that situation.
Relationships are at the crux of the book, and I expected that Caroline would suddenly be sleeping around London to enjoy her new found singledom but Irvin chose not to go down this route, instead choosing to give Caroline a relationship with a much younger boy, along with all the hassles that it brings with it, including upsetting the dynamic between mother and daughter, and I think Irvin wrote this part especially well. She conveyed young Rachel’s feelings really well and I felt this was a quite realistic. However, I was a little shocked at the other relationships in the books, those of Caroline’s friends Mary Anne and Esther, both of whom are Cougars and enjoying extra-marital relations yet apparently that is okay and Caroline isn’t bothered, despite her own husband’s affair. It seemed a little hypocritical to me but certainly added a different element to the book.
The issues in the book are quite important, especially in the modern world in which we live where a lot of things which once would have been a bit taboo are now far more widely accepted and spoken about, and women in Caroline’s situation is one of them. Irvin deals with the subject really well, not making it anything too over-the-top but believable, and treads carefully around all of the issues too. The problems at Caroline’s work, Sapphires and Rubies, deserved perhaps more significance in the book than they got, and also a harder storyline at the end involving one of Caroline’s friends, but of course these stories do have to take a back seat to the more plot-lead one.
It was an enjoyable read, I was drawn in by Caroline’s life and I liked how the ending was left somewhat open.. I wonder if Irvin will be revisiting Caroline and co once more! Irvin documents Caroline’s insecurities and worries about dating a much younger man very well, and I can certainly imagine that her feelings are those of a lot of older women dating younger men, the worry of what they see in you and that they’re going to run off with someone their own age. This gives the book a hint of realism, and I liked Caroline all the more for it. The book wasn’t at all what I expected and I liked that it was different and perhaps a bit more “grown-up” about the issue. It’s a very strong debut and I’ll look forward to reading more from Claire Irvin in the future.
July 14, 2014
Personally I was against the views of Maryanne and Esther, and so I was glad that Caroline began to be a Cougar without of a relationship.
The storyline was very interesting. After the break up between Caroline and Adam, I honestly thought, where is this story going to go after the second chapter of no contact with Adam; but really? It had a lot to say. I hate books that throw problem after problem at you. This story includes many different problems, but for the style of the book and the atmosphere Claire wanted, I think it worked perfectly.
It's starts off with a Prologue of Caroline finding out she is pregnant. Then chapter one went back to a year previous. Personally I felt like I was knocked off my feet (please mind my over exaggeration, I'm not quite sure how to put how I felt) as I didn't realise it went back to the past. Ive never read a book with that format before. It didn't take me long to get back on my feet.
I quite enjoyed that the main character was a business woman and showed throughout the story that you can be famous for more than just a talent, how harsh and complex a business life can be like and that you can't predict the future.
I love that through the character of Adam and the relationship between him and Caroline it shows how badly we misjudge people. Being a teenage girl, I also have to say how wonderfully he was described; gorgeous, down to earth, wise. What an amazing combination!
The story ends on the most annoying but enjoyable cliffhanger I've ever read! I really do want to know who the father is!!
The storyline was very interesting. After the break up between Caroline and Adam, I honestly thought, where is this story going to go after the second chapter of no contact with Adam; but really? It had a lot to say. I hate books that throw problem after problem at you. This story includes many different problems, but for the style of the book and the atmosphere Claire wanted, I think it worked perfectly.
It's starts off with a Prologue of Caroline finding out she is pregnant. Then chapter one went back to a year previous. Personally I felt like I was knocked off my feet (please mind my over exaggeration, I'm not quite sure how to put how I felt) as I didn't realise it went back to the past. Ive never read a book with that format before. It didn't take me long to get back on my feet.
I quite enjoyed that the main character was a business woman and showed throughout the story that you can be famous for more than just a talent, how harsh and complex a business life can be like and that you can't predict the future.
I love that through the character of Adam and the relationship between him and Caroline it shows how badly we misjudge people. Being a teenage girl, I also have to say how wonderfully he was described; gorgeous, down to earth, wise. What an amazing combination!
The story ends on the most annoying but enjoyable cliffhanger I've ever read! I really do want to know who the father is!!
April 1, 2011
I won this book from the book blog one more page, it has been on my
wish list for some time, I have been unable to get the book at the
Library, so I was over the moon to be a winner, and the book has a very
daring cover.
I loved this book, it was funny with good characters, very easy to
follow and I couldn’t put it down, this is a debut book by this Author,
I certainly hope there are more books to come. I would definitely
recommend this book.
wish list for some time, I have been unable to get the book at the
Library, so I was over the moon to be a winner, and the book has a very
daring cover.
I loved this book, it was funny with good characters, very easy to
follow and I couldn’t put it down, this is a debut book by this Author,
I certainly hope there are more books to come. I would definitely
recommend this book.
June 30, 2012
It took me a while to get into this book could'nt really relate to any of the characters and was left disappointed at the end cause i think alot of my questions about the book was left unanswered think the book could of gone on abit more
August 5, 2014
I am ashamed to say I read this, but there were limited English books available at the hotel I am staying at in Samoa. Was going to give it two stars until the end. I feel as though the author coped out on making any real conclusions.
July 22, 2012
Basic fluff! That's what I wanted.
August 16, 2012
Loved it! Quick & easy read and hard to put down!
June 17, 2014
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12100739
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12100739
February 1, 2014
Slow to get going and an ending that leaves you in the dark.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews