It is very rare for me to receive a book in the mail, sit down immediately and read the whole thing in one sitting. But, Barbara Samuel’s Madame Mirabou’s School of Love hooked me in from page one and the next thing I knew it was midnight and I’d finished it. It’s a wonderful story told in the first person by a heroine I liked and came to really admire.

The book begins with Nicole (Carrington) Bridges accidentally burning down the house that she received in her divorce settlement – the home that she and her family had lived happily in for years. Poor Nikki is really a mess: at 43 she is newly divorced and alone after giving up custody of her teenage daughter to her ex-husband. To top it off, she’s also unemployed and homeless. Seemingly things can’t get much worse – but thanks to her well meaning married friends and a suspicious insurance company, they do.

Nikki moves to a new apartment and quickly names her new apartment complex "Splitsville," as most of her neighbors are also divorced. Nikki is quickly embarrassed as her old friends arrive with their cast-off furniture to furnish her new apartment. She meets the tarot-reading Roxanne, aka Madame Mirabou. An extremely troubled woman who is stalking her ex-husband, Roxanne also occasionally has sex with him…and anyone else who happens to wear pants. But Roxanne does offer friendship to Nikki, and together they befriend another neighbor, Wanda. Wanda’s husband is nearing the end of a second deployment in Iraq. Because she is essentially raising several young children on her own, she needs any help and friendship they can provide.

Nikki finds a job at Annie’s Organix even though she hasn’t waited tables since her early twenties. The author accurately depicts a middle-aged housewife trying to find her sea legs and learning to take responsibility for her own life. Nikki quickly bonds with the restaurant’s black cook, Mary, who is surprised at Nikki’s knowledge of a black southern cookbook.

It turns out that Nikki was married to a black man and gave up custody of her teen-aged daughter after her husband convinced her that he and his new black wife could better raise a ‘daughter of color’. Mary helps Nikki to several realizations about her husband, why he left her for a Black American Princess – and also to recognize his efforts at manipulation.

Nikki meets a handsome restaurant patron, Niraj, who is immediately interested in her, but willing to go at a pace Nikki can handle in their new relationship. Niraj is an extremely likable hero, with his own set of problems from having dated damaged women in the past. Nikki wants to be sure that she is not just another of his wounded birds. Her first attempt at sex with Niraj was also extremely well handled; her panic when she realized that no man other then her husband had looked at her in 20 years really rang true. Niraj’s handling of her panic endeared him to me and although this book is not a true romance, I could foresee a HEA for this pair who have come together later in life and truly understand and support each other.

But this is really Nikki’s story of coming into her own rather than “simply” falling in love. Each day after work she passes a small, empty storefront in downtown Manitou and begins to dream of turning her life-long hobby of perfume creation into a business enterprise. All those who care about her – from her old life and her new one – want to help her make this dream a reality…will she take this immense leap of faith with their encouragement?

Since many readers (including myself) have been through divorces, I think they will recognize the stages of grief that Nikki endures. The night that she cries for hours on her apartment floor mourning the loss of the life and family she loved had me tearing up as well. The emotions rang so true and Samuel keeps all of Nikki’s actions so real that I felt that I knew this woman intimately.

Nikki’s relationship with Giselle, her teenage daughter, is also extremely well done and believable. One feels for this teenager whose family was broken up – like Nikki she longs for everything to go back to normal. But Giselle spends all her time on the phone with her friends and can’t imagine why she shouldn’t be in constant touch with them. Her discussion of her relationship with other mixed race friends was interesting and helped the reader to understand why Nikki felt that her ex-husband would be better able to understand the difficulties Giselle would encounter in her life. Giving up custody of her daughter was extremely hard for Nikki and her loneliness and yearning for her daughter was very poignant.

The only thing that didn’t ring true in this book is the title – I never figured out why they named it Madame Mirabou’s School of Love. Madame Mirabou is only mentioned a couple of times and Roxanne didn’t know anything about love. I fear that this title will create the wrong expectations from readers looking for a romance to match the title and cover photo. But, except for the title everything else in this novel takes the reader through a realistic journey of one woman who has been cast aside and survives. Nikki’s believable emotional journey takes her into an even more satisfying life for herself and provides a meaty tale for readers.