Triskelion Publishing, $4.99, ISBN 1-60186-147-8
Contemporary Romance, 2007

Poor Rena Sutherland. Our fifty-something heroine gets herself into a leopard-print negligee and waits up all night for her husband, only to fall asleep and have him wake her up to his tearful confession that he’s just come home from sleeping with his young employee. Arm Charm is the story of how Rena deals with this revelation and her subsequent relationship with James. As new love blooms over the horizon, Rena has to learn how, for the first time, she is going to be independent and do her own thing instead of living the life that her husband wanted her to.

This one is simple and straightforward story of a woman realizing that her husband is a scumbag and she’s too good for him even as she finds a new boyfriend who adores her the way she deserves to be adored. I’ve read many stories like this one before and this one doesn’t offer much that is new or different from those stories, apart from perhaps the heroine being in her fifties instead of the usual forties. I do find the writing more heavy-handed than I’d have liked, though, with author Doreen Lewis often beating me in the head with how terrible James is or how hard Rena is trying to be strong and independent.

Arm Charm is somewhat rather rough around the edges but it is still a readable story. It just doesn’t quite charm me off my feet or anything like that, though.