"If Singletree’s only florist didn’t deliver her posies half-drunk, I might still be married to that floor-licking, scum-sucking, receptionist-nailing hack-accountant, Mike Terwilliger."
Lacey Terwilliger’s shock and humiliation over her husband’s philandering prompt her to add some bonus material to Mike’s company newsletter: stunning Technicolor descriptions of the special brand of "administrative support" his receptionist gives him. The detailed mass e-mail to Mike’s family, friends, and clients blows up in her face, and before one can say "instant urban legend," Lacey has become the pariah of her small Kentucky town, a media punch line, and the defendant in Mike’s defamation lawsuit.
Her seemingly perfect life up in flames, Lacey retreats to her family’s lakeside cabin, only to encounter an aggravating neighbor named Monroe. A hunky crime novelist with a low tolerance for drama, Monroe is not thrilled about a newly divorced woman moving in next door. But with time, beer, and a screen door to the nose, a cautious friendship develops into something infinitely more satisfying.
Lacey has to make a decision about her long-term living arrangements, though. Should she take a job writing caustic divorce newsletters for paying clients, or move on with her own life, pursuing more literary aspirations? Can she find happiness with a man who tells her what he thinks and not what she wants to hear? And will she ever be able to resist saying one . . . last . . . thing?
Completely non-bingo related, but I've been itching to read this book since it arrived, and I was heading to Key West for a short stay, so into the bag it went.
Molly Harper has, until recently, been best known for her hilarious series of books set in the town of Half-Moon Hollow, about a community of vampires. Her newest books are a departure from the Urban Fantasy and focus on women's fiction/chick-lit. And one more thing is an earlier effort at the same: no vampires or werewolves, just a screwed over woman getting her own back in a deeply hilarious and outrageous way, then facing up to the consequences. There's a new love too of course; without it this would be an incomplete book, but it's not insta-love and it doesn't smack of rebound. Harper makes reader and characters alike wait for it and work for it.
I put off reading this one for years thinking it would be too shallow for my tastes in chick-lit, but after reading her recent series set in Georgia (Sweet Tea and Sympathy), I realised I might be missing out. I was. It's not a life changing read, but it is more thoughtful and involved than the title and synopsis would lead you to believe. It was light, but not frivolous, funny but not at the expense of character development. A perfect beach read.
Reading updates
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11 September, 2018:
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11 September, 2018:
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