by Marin Thomas
Why I chose this book? This showed up in my mailbox and it had a great synopsis!
When I read this book? August 2017
Who should read this book? Fans of contemporary women’s fiction and particularly, southern fiction
Source: I don’t remember
My Rating: ✰✰✰✰ 4 Stars
One woman's journey home gets derailed by her soon-to-be ex-mother-in-law in a novel filled with humor, small-town charm, rekindled love, and the resilient ties of family.
Cast aside by her cheating husband, Katelyn Chandler is ready to pack it all in and drive home to Little Springs, Texas. She wants a chance to regroup, reconnect with her mother, and get back to her art.
But Shirley Pratt--master manipulator, elitist snob, and Katelyn's terror of a live-in monster-in-law--has other ideas. Shirley insists on joining Katelyn's trip after her son tries to pack her off to a retirement community. Katelyn has no choice but to play peacekeeper between the ornery old woman and the proud matrons of Little Springs. Yet the small town seems to be changing Shirley. And as Katelyn weighs the wisdom of picking up where she left off with Jackson Mendoza, the town bad boy and her high school sweetheart, she must find a way to believe in the strength of her dreams.
My Review
I’m not sure where I got this book. I may have entered a contest that I don’t remember. It just showed up in my mailbox earlier this summer and I am so glad it did! This was a fun read that I finished very quickly. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and found them very likeable, even when they weren’t on their best behavior.
I loved the humor in the book. Katelyn and her mother-in-law, Shirley, are definitely not best-buds. Shirley dislikes Katelyn, feeling that her son married beneath himself and that Katelyn should be willing to put up with her husband’s ‘flaws’ and be grateful for the lifestyle he provides her. Katelyn is quite passive-aggressive towards her mother-in-law, hiding her purse to make Shirley think she has forgotten where she placed it, buying yellow when she knows Shirley’s favorite color is green, and even refusing to cut her hair, even though she thinks it might be time for a change, simply because Shirley has told her she would look better in short hair!
When Katelyn’s husband shocks her by having her served with divorce papers. Katelyn plans to return to the small Texas town she grew up in. The good news is that she will be escaping Shirley and her constant criticism. But surprise!...Shirley has decided to join Katelyn in Texas! Moving Shirley from her high-class, sophisticated lifestyle to set her down in small-town, not-so-high-class Texas leads to more humor and fun. But there are also some touching scenes as we watch the characters evolve and form relationships.
One thing that I really liked — something that I normally find annoying in a book — was the somewhat ambiguous ending. The book finished with all the loose ends not being neatly tied up into a bow, leaving us to wonder what happens next for Katelyn. While I normally like neat, happy ending that tell me exactly what happens to the characters I’ve grown to care about, in this case, I think it would have left me feeling like everything came together a little too easily and unrealistically.
There are discussion questions at the back of the book.Visit the author’s website to learn more about the book or to read an excerpt.
You can view the book trailer below.
You can view the book trailer below.
I typically like neat endings, but I've also read a few ambiguous endings I liked because they felt more believable :) What an interesting relationship for a book to focus on! It seems like a nice change of pace.
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