Book Club Friday: Savannah Blues

Friggity, Fraggity, Friday!

Time for Book Club!

 

This week, I managed to find some time to finish reading Savannah Blues, which the lovely Heather from Living at 1...2...3 living sent me for the last Book Swap. And let me tell you, I freaking loved it!

 

First off, the names. Oh the character names! Ms. Andrews couldn’t have picked them more perfectly.

There’s Eloise, or Weezie, who’s a picker (garage-saler/antique-r) and the MC. The moment I read her name, I was reminded of "Ouizer" from Steel Magnolias and there's nothing more I could have asked Ms. Andrews for than a younger version of Shirley MacLaine's character. And let me tell you, they were pretty much the same person. Which was awesome. So freaking awesome.

Bebe – Weezie’s restauranter best friend. Every time I read this amazing name, I got a little sadder that mine is so plain.

Beaulieu – an older home that has its own name. Man, I just LOVE when properties have their own names. You know, aside from “my place” or "the crazy cat lady's house."

Talmage Evans III (Tal) – Weezie’s ex-husband. Can we just take a moment and appreciate the image that this name immediately conjers. Talk about a wonderful "show" of character! How can a guy with a name like that not be a douche? Am I right?

Daniel – Weezie’s new love interest. As this name is quite boring, you can see why it was hard for me to connect with him. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with the name Daniel (in fact, it’s my brother-in-law’s name) but compared to the other awesome names, it falls a little flat.

It took me approximately seven seconds to fall in love with Weezie. Mostly because she calls her ex-husband’s new fiancé a bitch on page two, after she comes over to complain about Weezie’s dog peeing on her flowers. And why would Caroline, the fiancé, think that she had the right to knock on Weezie’s door? Well, because poor ole Weezie is stuck living in the carriage house/garage at the back of the property that she used to share with her husband.

Can you imagine waking up every morning to see your ex-husband with his lady?

Helooooooooo, nightmare.

*waves*

But back to Weezie, because if she were a real person, I’d stalk her until we became friends. Not only is she witty, but she makes her living by buying and selling antiques. Now, I don’t know much about antiques, or garage-sale-ing, but Ms. Andrews manages to describe objects in such detail that I could almost touch them. Plus, my house seemed to go from cold and dry to hot and humid as I followed Weezie around Savannah's scene.

The only thing I wasn't totally on-board with was Weezie's new love interest, Daniel. I don't know why, but I didn't really like him and he definitely wouldn't have been someone I'd pick for Weezie. I did appreciate Daniel’s culinary talents, as my mouth watered on more than one occasion, but aside from that, he just didn’t do it for me.

But I didn't have time to really lament over my ho-hum feelings about Daniel because, about halfway through, Ms. Andrews threw in a GINORMOUS PLOT TWIST that left my head spinning. The funny thing about ebooks is the lack of "back" to read, so I really wasn't expecting it. Mild spoiler alert: it's a very good twist. 

So all-in-all, I really enjoyed Savannah Blues. There was drama, mystery and enough comedy to keep things light. Plus, I was able to read the whole thing with a southern accent in mind…and y’all know just how much I love me a southern accent. Ha!

So thanks again to Heather for sending me my very first Mary Kay Andrews! It definitely won’t be my last!

And if you haven't already, pop on over here and enter my giveaway. There's a few different things up for grabs, including an Amazon gift card!

Happy Friday, everyone!