Dancing Naked in Dixie

by Lauren Clark

[Leah]

Last year I read Lauren Clark’s debut novel Stay Tuned, and I liked it. It was a quick, cute read, and so when I was offered the chance to read Lauren’s second novel Dancing Naked In Dixie for a blog tour, I jumped at the chance. Dancing Naked In Dixie was just as quick, and just as fun as Stay Tuned and I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend picking up the novel as it’s such a sweet novel.

Dancing Naked In Dixie tells the story of Julia Sullivan, who lives her life at 150mph, never stopping to appreciate anything and who spends her time flying from one place to another in her job as a travel writer. She gets the surprise of her life when she gets a new boss at Getaways, even more so when she realises who he is. When he sets her the task of going to Eufaula, Alabama, to preview their annual Pilgrimage, Julia sees it as a personal affront and can’t believe she’s being sent to somewhere so… Southern, so uninteresting. She’d rather dance naked then go to Alabama. However, with her job on the line, she duly heads to Alabama and as it turns out, Alabama isn’t uninteresting. In fact, throw in the Jordan family and Alabama turns out to be very interesting indeed.

I absolutely loved that the novel was set in Alabama. I’ve never read a book set in Alabama before and it’s not necessarily high up on my to-visit list (is it on anyone’s, to be fair?) however Clark presented Alabama in such a way that I’d quite like to visit it. What I like about novels set in such small towns is just how close the entire community is. It’s like a character in itself and the closeness of everyone in Eufaula was brilliant. I absolutely adored the Jordan family, particularly Shug and PD, and I liked how they quickly welcomed Julia to Alabama and how they all just got on so well. It’s so lovely to read and I liked the chemistry in particular between Julia and Shug.

Clark has such a brilliant voice. Dancing Naked In Dixie was just a pleasure to read. Generally when I read a book in bed it isn’t for very long as, well, I love sleep, however I stayed up ’til midnight just so I could finish the book and see what it was Julia had uncovered and if she could save the day in time. I would definitely recommend the book as Dancing Naked In Dixie is one of the sweetest, most readable books I’ve read this year. I don’t know what a moon pie is, but I’d certainly like to try one – it would been a perfect accompaniment to this novel, in fact. I can’t wait for Lauren Clark’s next novel as she’s definitely a writer to keep an eye on, with her easy writing and reading style, she could easily become a staple on my reading list.