Like Mandarin

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their Badlands town. Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.
from goodreads.com

Beth says 3.5 Stars…

If I had to go out and rate this, I’d put it at a solid debut – not good, but not bad. The strength of the book is the descriptions of Wyoming and its badlands. They pull you into the book and allow for extraordinary visuals; I could really see what Hubbard was describing despite spending most of my life in the southeast United States. The beauty that came through in this book made me want to go and visit the badlands to experience it for myself. However, I didn’t feel the pull of the plot, or plots as it seemed. I didn’t feel the pull of the story to keep reading because I couldn’t see where everything headed, when I felt like I should have. The pageant storyline gave me Toddlers and Tiaras flashbacks and could have biased me against it. I’ve been trying to forget that scarring hour of television ever since I watched it so anything with child beauty queens creeps me out more than a little bit. The plot didn’t really capture my interest or flow terribly well. It rather meandered around aimlessly without making terribly much sense. The book instead mainly centered on the developing relationship between Mandarin and Grace, but the side plots felt off to me. They detracted from the main focus without enhancing the story.

I found the bad girl angle of Mandarin interesting, but something that hindered me relating to her. At times her rarely visible vulnerability felt forced. Her attitude, however, seemed highly accurate and realistic. I’m not one to tolerate a teenage bad/rebellious attitude in life or in any sort of media. Sometimes I had a strong urge to shake Mandarin and never really understood why she behaved the way she did. I wished that Grace would be stronger because she often ended up as a doormat for whoever happened to be around her. Her character was well formed, but it just wasn’t one that I particularly enjoyed. I think that’s the problem I had with this book; it wasn’t bad, but I didn’t connect with it. The characters were relatively good and decently three-dimensional yet never made a deep impression on me.

This book shows some promise and has moments of beautiful prose. However, I found the plot unappealing and the characters not very easy to relate to. Some people might really enjoy it, but I’m not one of them. If you absolutely adore realistic fiction then I’d suggest giving this one a try. If it’s not quite your favorite then this might not be the best choice.
Book from Library

The Iron Witch

Freak. That's what her classmates call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood. When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed her father and drove her mother mad. Donna's own nearly fatal injuries from the assault were fixed by magic—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. The child of alchemists, Donna feels cursed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane and grounded is her relationship with her best friend, Navin Sharma.
When the darkest outcasts of Faerie—the vicious wood elves—abduct Navin, Donna finally has to accept her role in the centuries old war between the humans and the fey. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous half-fey dropout with secrets of his own, Donna races to save her friend—even if it means betraying everything her parents and the alchemist community fought to the death to protect.
From goodreads.com

Beth says 2 Stars…

As soon as I saw this cover I had to pick this book up – it gave me a serious case of cover lust. Also, I thought that it sounded interesting and different than quite a few of the books I’d seen lately; the alchemist angle isn’t often used. Alas, I was disappointed. The plot didn’t particularly grab my attention and lacked pretty much any nuance. The direction was simplistically straightforward and evident within the first third of the book. Additionally the plot really needed some originality, because the concept ended up falling flat. So much additional information needed to be given out for it to make sense, and Mahoney’s attempts at explaining the lore were clumsy at best. Too much was left either to the imagination or ended up as a garbled mess. I really believe this to be one of the major flaws of the novel and why I just couldn’t pull myself into the story. The writing also didn’t strike me as very good; I’ve read worse, but this still ranks on the low end. If only one area lacked then I think the book could have been salvaged. However, with everything sub-par the book couldn’t manage to be captivating and fell flat.

Oh the characters… for some reason I just felt ambivalent towards Donna. Yes I wanted her to succeed, but only in the “I don’t want to be a bad person and wish ill on this seemingly decent human being” way. Her character never developed into anything particularly complex and entirely lacked depth. I think it was because the entire novel mainly focused on muddling up the original concept and didn’t particularly address the characters. Navin, although likeable, seemed to me like more of a convenient plot device than an actual person important to the story. I wish that he had been more prominent because I honestly found him the most interesting character. Xan did absolutely nothing for me. Yes, he filled the niche of tall and broody, but I found his past and revelations murky. Perhaps I’m just dense, but there was some serious lack of sense making on his part. I think a good bit of that goes back to the poorly built world, because some of my confusion stemmed from my lack of understanding of the lore that supposedly exists in this universe. I thought that the love triangle in this book was absolutely pathetic – it consisted of a couple and then someone who wished they were in it.

This book really let me down. Instead of an interesting and original novel, I found a muddled mess of a world and a lackluster plot. I guess this serves as a reminder that you really can’t judge a book by its cover. This book belongs in the skip pile.
Book from Library

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.
The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.
But there is a cost.
The Keeper likes to keep things.
Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.
from harperteen.com

Beth says 5 Stars…

I actually fell in love with this cover. Lately there have been some amazing covers and this one just stood out to me. I didn’t particularly pay attention to what it was about, so when I read the summary I got insanely excited. Not only do I adore fairy tale retellings, but this is one of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, my absolute favorite fairy tale of all time. I absolutely loved Jessica Day George’s version, so I have very high standards for this particular story. Dixon did a wonderful job altering the plot to increase its depth and scope. Since I already had a general idea of where things needed to go, I didn’t have any confusion over what was happening and why. The few things that at the time seemed slightly odd worked their way into sense by the end of the novel. For me it explained why the girls needed to go dancing in the first place; not only were they trapped in the house by the mourning period, but they also truly loved to dance. The intensity of their need made it easy to understand why they would do something that otherwise seemed illogical. The darkness of the story drew me in and aged it up for me. No longer could the girls just dance freely without any trouble other than that from their father. The book is also fairly long, coming close to 500 pages. At that length it easily could have had serious pacing issues, yet none existed. Nowhere did the book drag or go too fast and leave my head spinning; I remained constantly engrossed. I’m also impressed because this is Dixon’s debut, which suggests to me that her novels will get even better, something I look forward to because of how amazing this first one is already.

The general version of the fairy tale has the girls all with flower names, but Dixon cleverly enhanced that. The girls were named (all flowers, of course) in alphabetical order, which really helped me keep them all straight, because when there are 12 sisters of varying ages any help with remembering how old they are is welcome. Azalea held the role of oldest sister and heroine well, managing her younger sisters and keeping the peace. I loved how she actually took responsibility for her actions when things began to turn sour instead of playing the delightful blame game. Although there was some romance, it really didn’t take the focus of the novel. Instead it gave way to both grief and love, with the love not necessarily being romantic. The relationships within the family really were delightfully written, and what I would imagine having a large number of siblings would be like. You could always tell that even when the girls were extremely annoyed with one another, the undercurrent of love still remained. They used each other as support throughout everything, but still tried to protect whoever was younger from any harm. Despite the fact that the book centered on Azalea, the other princesses did get some decent page time. Bramble in particular had me in stitches on more than one occasion because of her feisty temper and lack of verbal filter.

This is a complete and total must read. If you grew up loving this original story you won’t be disappointed in this new version. Instead of trying to change it into something entirely new, it just took the best parts of the old and enhanced them will small bits of the new. If you want something dark, lush, and filled with magical dancing grab this now. If not, read it anyway because everyone should. Don’t be scared by the length, because it’s a fast read that makes you wish for more.
Book from Library

City of Fallen Angels

The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.
But nothing comes without a price.
Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary's best friend, Simon, can't help her. His mother just found out that he's a vampire and now he's homeless. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side—along with the power of the curse that's wrecking his life. And they're willing to do anything to get what they want. Not to mention that he's dating two beautiful, dangerous girls—neither of whom knows about the other one.
When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.
Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.
from bn.com

Beth says 5 Stars…

When I heard this series was over after City of Glass I was sad, but thought the series had come to a nice close. However, as soon as I knew about this book I became both excited and confused. I couldn’t see where the story would go because it seemed to be so nicely wrapped up. Leave it to Cassandra Claire to prove me wrong and bring fresh life where I thought none could exist. The plot at the beginning had a few expected moments, then went off in different directions than I predicted. The ending definitely had be shaking my head and yearning for more. Like the rest of the books in this series I started it and couldn’t put it down. Every time I pick up a novel of Cassandra Claire’s I end up enraptured by her words and devour the book in one sitting. I love how vivid the world of the Shadowhunters is, with its mythology developed so deeply and fascinatingly. Instead of just resting on the already created, Claire added more details and intricacies to the lore.

The characters still delighted me with their combination of sarcasm and heart. Not many new characters came into the fold, but I didn’t particularly care. I love every new thing, small or large, revealed about the characters and plenty of things came to light. Clary still has her delightful mixture of strength and helplessness, but she’s learning more about her new world. I like her transition from complete novice in the first book to a partially trained force to be reckoned with now. Jace maintained his presence and personality, but this book delved into his mind a bit more. He’s generally so inscrutable that the glimpse this book gave enriched his character development so much. I still adore Simon and how adorkably sarcastic he always manages to be. I will say that there are a few little goodies for those who’ve read Claire’s other series, but my lips are sealed beyond that. The relationships between everyone constantly evolve to become more and more complicated. I love how the characters constantly grow and that their growth touches how they interact with one another.

This is a fantastic continuation of a series I though was finished, and something that I welcome. I can’t wait for the next book because I’m not okay with where this one ended. As soon as it comes out I’m picking it up because I’m fairly certain it will be as good as this one. If you enjoyed the rest of the series this is a must read, but it won’t make any sense if you haven’t looked at them. If you haven’t read the series but enjoy authors like Melissa Marr and Holly Black these are books for you.
Book Bought

Matched

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
from goodreads.com

Beth says 3.5 Stars…

This is a case in which a book didn’t up to the hype that initially surrounded it. I found the premise highly interesting and wanted it to be absolutely amazing. I came into the book with the desire to like it, completely open. The plot took a while to really get going and never managed to engross me. I felt that I’d read much of the novel before in other books. The whole concept of a society where jobs and romantic partners are assigned is nothing new (oh hey there The Giver), but Condie could have really done something with it to make it her own. She did add some things, but they either made no impact, or they made very little sense. For example, if the pills are so important and some forbidden except on particular occasions, why does everyone carry them around all the time? I also didn’t quite understand how people didn’t know how to write when they could read, even if the things were on screens in digital format. I mean, the obvious thing is to just copy the letters from the screen onto something in order to learn to write, but that just makes sense to me. The plot took a goodly while to get going, and wasn’t the most gripping of stories. The good thing is that this is the first of a series, and I think that some large chunks were set up for the rest of the novels.

The characters are relatively meh. I didn’t love them or hate them. In fact, I found it difficult to muster any strong feelings about any single character. I found Cassia a bit irritating, but she did grow to become less irksome. I think the next book might be where she comes into her own, or at least alters to something more than just tolerable. I also didn’t particularly find either of the boys that interesting. I mean, they ended up being so completely stereotypical that it took away from the little individual character they did have. Honestly, some of that didn’t even get dispensed until the end, by which point I didn’t have more time to invest in them. The love triangle also lacked the fire to make it compelling. It was totally obvious who Cassia would end up with, which left me feeling sorry for the other guy during the course of the entire novel.

Sometimes hype before publication can harm a book, which is what happened here. I went in with very high expectations and found them utterly let down. This will satisfy some readers, and because it’s the summer might be fun to pick up if there’s nothing else around. I think that the series could have potential, so the next book (which I believe comes out in December) will be extremely telling. I’d grab this over nothing at all, but it wouldn’t be my first pick. This foray into dystopian left me wanting, and isn’t the next Hunger Games as it lacks the philosophical depth, instead focusing on a predictably boring love triangle.
Book from Library

Shadowspell

On top of spending most of her time in a bunkerlike safe house and having her dates hijacked by a formidable Fae bodyguard, Faeriewalker Dana Hathaway is in for some more bad news: the Erlking and his pack of murderous minions known as the Wild Hunt have descended upon Avalon. With his homicidal appetite and immortal powers, the Erlking has long been the nightmare of the Fae realm. A fragile treaty with the Faerie Queen, sealed with a mysterious spell, is the one thing that keeps him from hunting unchecked in Avalon, the only place on Earth where humans and Fae live together. Which means Dana’s in trouble, since it’s common knowledge that the Faerie Queen wants her – and her rare Faeriewalker powers – dead. The smoldering, sexy Erlking’s got his sights set on Dana, but does he only seek to kill her, or does he have something much darker in mind?
from jennablack.com

Beth says 4 Stars…

This series is quickly becoming one of my favorite guilty pleasure reads. First of all, I’m loving that Black is a North Carolina author because I love to support people who are (relatively speaking) local. Now to the point of why these books are delightful; everything’s just flat out fun. Yes there are serious portions; Dana’s mother’s alcoholism is nothing to be laughed at. Yet somehow nothing brings down the tone of the novel. The plot for this had a moment or two that was unsurprising enough, but I didn’t see a couple of the plot twists coming. I got thrown for a loop more than once in the most delightful of ways. I was enthralled by the story and devoured the book in one afternoon, that’s the way I seem to read this series. This falls into the category of page turner; as soon as I finished it I looked around in a daze, thinking that I’d just started the novel. I will say the quality of writing tends to be mediocre. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s nothing spectacular either.

The characters in the book are so much fun! I love how the Faerie class system permeates the interactions in Avalon, because it sets the world apart without being too removed. I also think it allows for the generational gaps to be seen nicely without undue effort and awkwardness. Dana still remains a delightful heroine. Although she makes mistakes, she owns to them and does as well as she can. Instead of just sitting and moping about her fate she tries to change things, for better or worse. Also, the romance absolutely sizzles! Ethan has some shining moments, but more than that the tension and fire that should be there when he and Dana are together come through perfectly clearly. There have been an unfortunate number of books built around the paranormal romance theme that don’t have a spark between the potential lovebirds. Not so here… in fact the chemistry is so intense that there are a few things that might be inappropriate for younger readers. Then there’s Keane, whose bad boy image cracks ever so slightly even as he continues pounding on Dana for the sake of teaching her.

Basically this is a perfect summer series. The third book in the series, which looks super intense, is coming out next month which gives everyone time to read the first two to prepare. This is certainly a great summer series for anyone who wants a relatively light novel with a fantasy twist. Take this one to the beach or wherever you’re headed on vacation to fulfill the guilty pleasure quota that comes with summer.
Book from Library

Darkest Mercy

The Summer King is missing; the Dark Court is bleeding; and a stranger walks the streets of Huntsdale, his presence signifying the deaths of powerful fey.
Aislinn tends to the Summer Court, searching for her absent king and yearning for Seth. Torn between his new queen and his old love, Keenan works from afar to strengthen his court against the coming war. Donia longs for fiery passion even as she coolly readies the Winter Court for battle. And Seth, sworn brother of the Dark King and heir to the High Queen, is about to make a mistake that could cost his life.
Love, despair, and betrayal ignite the Faery Courts, and in the final conflict, some will win . . . and some will lose everything.
from amazon.com

Beth says 5 Stars…

I’m so sad that this series is over. I absolutely loved the dark and unexpected world of Marr’s faeries and am rather distressed to leave it. This review will probably be more than slightly biased because of how much I’ve invested in the series, through its ups and downs, which makes it rather difficult to separate this book completely. However, I’m going to do my best to neither wallow in the slight misery of the ending of a favorite series of mine nor gush about the awesomeness of this conclusion. The world Marr created is spellbinding and seductive; enriched and enlarged over the course of the novels. As this isn’t a new world that needs creating entirely, very little expansion of the established ended up being necessary. I think that the main enhancement came in the guise of the characters and not from the settings surrounding them. The plot constantly diverged in different directions, and all of the little threads placed in previous novels came together beautifully. Before reading the book I worried about how having different main characters in the other novels would affect the flow of the plot. I needn’t have been bothered, because Marr shifted focus from one character to another smoothly, entwining their individual stories to make a whole. All I’m going to mention about the actual plot is that I didn’t see the end coming, but I loved it and thought it a fitting close to the series.

The characters didn’t lose their quality and brilliance, and in fact just became more and more fascinating. I enjoying reading about all of the old, familiar friends and foes with just enough new faces throw into the mix to keep it fresh. Some of the characters, of course, fell slightly by the wayside because of the sheer numbers of them, but most of those either weren’t my favorites or had supporting roles previously. It was delightful to see how much Ash changed to meet the challenges of becoming the Summer Queen, much as Donia had in transitioning over to being the Winter Queen. I particularly enjoyed how they functioned as foils for one another to highlight the differences and similarities in the nature of the courts. Then there are the boys, and Marr knows how to make some very delightful fey men. Niall, Seth, and Keenan all had some ups and downs in this book and have changed dramatically since their first introduction. What I love about a series this long is that it allows for remarkable amounts of character development; you really can see an interesting arc.

It’s sad to see this series draw to a close, but I thought this novel a fitting end to it. I’ll miss the faeries and the world they inhabit. I’m excited to see what Marr’s next YA project will be (I know I need to grab her first adult novel soon) and be transported into another world by her. Hopefully it will be as seductive and fascinating as this was.

Wither

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.


When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.


But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.
from goodreads.com

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Beth says 4 Stars…

I love the concept of this book. I’m all for the surge in dystopian fiction being offered post-Hunger Games because I happen to be a huge fan of the genre. I found the concept of the consequences of science absolutely fascinating because of my love of science. Genetic engineering, its limits, and the morality that comes with it capture my attention and initially helped draw me into the novel. However, there really were only hints at the interesting bits, with more of the science focus being on some possibly unpleasant and secret experiments done by a single individual. I do understand that this makes no real scientific sense, but maybe DeStefano will find some way to make it logical. If not, I hope she at least delves into the consequences of emerging technology. I hope the rest of the series will expand upon the scientific aspects of the world. I will say that the world building needs improvement; everything was in the same vein as the scientific set up. There are hints of a fantastically interesting world – it has a lot of potential. However, quite a bit was either illogical or poorly explained, which really hurt the engrossing power of the story. A huge reason this book rates so highly is the absolute beauty of the prose. It’s so pretty (that was my mature definition)! I got enraptured by the lovely writing, which absolutely sucked me in. This is partly why I think the series has so much potential; this book is a debut, and this caliber of writing right off the bat bodes well for improvement in other aspect of the novels.

Another reason the book was good were the character descriptions. I really felt for all of them, even those who readers didn’t necessarily need to bond with. Rhine had enough spunk to keep me happy and interested, but she was so much more than that. She was fragile without ever breaking and tough without being impervious. I felt as though I had a good feel for what she thought and how she ticked, so it was interesting to see her develop and reveal more about herself as time went on. I loved her relationship with Gabriel and how it defies a good deal of the current conventions of YA lit. So often the two characters meet and a week later are passionately in love, knowing that they’re soulmates. Here they actually build a relationship in what could be seen as a relatively healthy way (considering that one of them is in a polygamous marriage). I also found the polygamy very interesting because it allowed exploration of very different relationships than normal. The wives could have their own unique marriage to Linden within the larger family frame. I also thought that the interactions between the sister wives themselves showed a great deal about the characters’ personalities. I became deeply invested in all of the characters, whether I liked them or not.

Wither is a novel that is both deeply flawed and magnificent. I think that the series has a lot of potential and could be unbelievable, but DeStefano has some things she needs to work on. The main concern is to improve the world building, but if she can do that with her strong writing foundation there could be a gold mine here. I’m excited to see where this story goes and how things develop and look forward to being wrapped in her beautiful prose and intense characters once more.
Book from Publisher

Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell

Expelled from thirteen boarding schools in the past five years, seventeen-year-old Jane Fontaine Ventouras is returning to her Southern roots, and the small town of Bienville, Alabama, where ladies always wear pearls, nothing says hospitality like sweet tea
and pimento cheese sandwiches, and competing in the annual Magnolia Maid Pageant is every girl’s dream.

But Jane is what you might call an anti-belle—more fishnets and tattoos than sugar and spice. The last thing on her mind is joining the Magnolia Maid brigade and parading around town in
a dress so big she can’t even fi t through doors. So when she finds herself up to her ears in ruffl es and etiquette lessons, she’s got one mission: Escape.

What’s a hipster to do? Will Jane survive Bienville boot camp intact or will they—gasp!—make a Southern belle out of her yet?
from amazon.com

Beth says 4.5 Stars…

With a title like this one (although the cover is less than amazing), you know the book’s going to be hilarious. That’s actually what drew me to the book, and I must say that it didn’t disappoint. As a Southern girl myself I can relate to some of the scenarios in the book. There’s a whole little section where Jane rants about the use of the phrase “Be sweet,” which is something I’ve heard more times than I can count. There were many more instances of similar hilarity throughout the novel, and the little sayings got me every time. I did find the plot a bit convoluted; at times I couldn’t understand in what direction things were headed. However, although it did get confusing it was still insanely funny. It took me a while to get my bearings because I thought the book would center on the preparations for a beauty pageant, which put me more than a bit off base. I really loved Rumley’s characterization of the South – it was just accurate enough and didn’t attempt to be perfect. The costume descriptions were super vivid and absolutely fantastic. Some of the mental images given to me by the dresses kept me entertained for longer than I should admit.

Jane was so much fun. Although she had some very stereotypical bad girl traits, you still could see the goodness and caring beneath her tough exterior because of her status as main character. The amount of sarcasm that came from her warmed my heart and made me chuckle. I loved how she didn’t just sit down and take things and that her fights managed to lead to odd, yet entertaining consequences. The rest of the characters were equally as much fun to get to know. The radically different personalities that all of the “Maids” had melded into a quirky whole that allowed for lots of non-serious spats.

The only real way to describe this book is sheer Southern hilarity. I was in stitches the whole time while reading it! This is a perfect light beach read. Just be warned that you will laugh (probably rather loudly) when reading this novel, so consider your surroundings before opening the book.
Book from Publisher