Book Reviews

Gosh, I haven't posted in a while....

So, in the last month or so, I've read three books. Here are my reviews, in the order in which they were read.

Deep Dish, by Mary Kay Andrews: I like Mary Kay Andrews writing. I loved Savannah Blues and Savannah Breeze. Weezie Foley is one of my all time favorite characters. I also loved Hissy Fit. Her characters have endeared themselves to me, and I've found her main female characters sassy and fun. Deep Dish was different for me. I still found it to be a pretty good book, and I loved the male character, Tate Moody. There was one thing that bothered me in the book and it was the very frequent use of the F word. Now, I'm not all that bothered by the occasional use of the F word in literature, and have myself been known to sling a few cuss words around when provoked to anger. But in Deep Dish, the F word was used constantly. To me the routine use of it, when it added nothing to the story, was overkill. Also, I was bothered by the use of Jesus Christ as slang, and how often it was used in the book. There were a couple of times that I literally cringed at how the name JC was used. I think had the F word and the name of Jesus Christ not been used soooooo much, it would have made it a much better book for me. Aside from that, the story was fun, in Mary Kay's usual crazy way. I enjoyed their travels to coastal Georgia, a place near and dear to my heart. And I found a number of the supporting characters to be colorful and amusing. I give Deep Dish 3 stars out of 5 primarily because of the language.

The Will of Wisteria, by Denise Hildreth: I loved this book! Denise Hildreth is another one of my favorite authors. www.denisehildreth.com She also has trilogy of books, Savannah From Savannah, and the others that follow, about a young woman named Savannah, obviously from Savannah. The Savannah books made me a huge fan of Denise's writing. I highly recommend the Savannah books as well, for fun, and laughter, colored with a bit of faith. The Will of Wisteria is about a family of shallow, selfish, spoiled siblings who have to meet the demands of their deceased father's will in order to inheirit his gazillion dollars. The demands made by the father have the potential to be life changing. Denise takes hard to like people, weaves them into the beauty of the story, and by the end of the book you are in love with them. This was a lovely book set in Charleston SC and I really enjoyed how she wrote about Charleston and the outlying islands. The book will make you laugh and cry. It was nice to read something that wasn't riddled with bad language or graphic sex. In fact this book is uplifting and hopeful. I give The Will of Wisteria 5 stars out of 5.

Sullivan's Island, by Dorothea Benton Frank: I'm not sure but I think this may be DB Frank's first book. But its been around awhile, maybe since about 2000. www.dotfrank.com I had never read any of her books before, and thanks to a recommendation from Jenn over at www.beaufortlookout.blogspot.com I decided to check it out. Jenn is a big fan of DB Frank. And, now it seems that I'm a big fan too. I loved Sullivan's Island and devoured it in just a few days. Like The Will of Wisteria, this book is also set in Charleston and Sullivan's Island SC. Its a wonderful story of a middle aged woman, learning to live with divorce, her memories of childhood, and the special relationships of mother and daughter, and sisters. The characters endeared themselves so much to me. Its hard to pick out which one was most special. The book is filled with such a range of emotions, and events that span the racial tension of the 60s to ringing in the millenium of 2000, and a little bit of magic thrown in too. And, it contains one of the most hilarious sex scenes I've ever read. Not a raunchy graphic sex scene, but a downright funny one. I liked this book so much that I went out and bought it (I had gotten this particular copy from my library) and her next two books as well. Thank you Jenn for the recommendation! I give Sullivan's Island 5 stars out of 5.

Happy Reading!