For the Love of Pete (A Bloomfield Novel) by Debby Mayne

Widow Bethany Hanahan is trying in vain to fill an empty heart and an empty nest. The result is a home filled to the brim, but something is still missing.

That’s when her new gardening club friends come to the rescue, encouraging her to let go of the past as well as the present clutter –emotional, spiritual, and physical. It’s not long before Bethany is finding friends, not bargains, to fill her days. But has her life become too full for someone like Pete Sprockett, a childhood friend, for whom her romantic feelings are beginning to bloom?

Join the quirky, loving community of Bloomfield as they do what they do best – poke their well-meaning noses in and intervene in times of need –in author Debby Mayne’s second novel in what has become a five book series about a community where life is simple and love is real.

My Review:
Bethany's husband has died, her only child is off to college, and she's moved back to Bloomfield, close to her controlling mother. Pete, the plumber, has known and secretly loved Bethany since childhood. He hopes to have a chance to catch her eye, but Bethany is too easily pulled this way and that by other influences to consider him as more than a friend. Characters are undeveloped and flat.

Murray, the parrot, is another unbelievable character. If left alone, he opens his cage door, escapes, and creates chaos. I don't know why a lock cannot be found for the cage. To keep the peace, he is brought everywhere. He interrupts every conversation with his talking and squawking. He actually thinks, reasons, and communicates with people. Believe me, you've never met a parrot like this one!

The plot is simplistic, and there are no unexpected surprises. This is not one of my favorites. Perhaps you'll like it more than I did.

Thank you to Bonnie at Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and B&H Books for my copy.

If you would like to read the first chapter, click here.

If you would like to buy a copy, click here.

Tickled Pink: Class Reunion Series by Debby Mayne

Class Reunion Series, Book 3

Priscilla Slater shows up at her twenty-year reunion as a national celebrity. Her hair salon dynasty has skyrocketed, and to top it off, she has her own line of hair products. She has become a huge success with the “Ms. Prissy Big Hair” line that lets women with the thinnest of locks get the coveted “big hair” look so popular in the South.

Her classmates have finally come to terms with adulthood, but they’re handling it with the grace of a Southern woman wearing white after Labor Day. It’s just downright awkward! Asserting the maturity that her classmates have often lacked, Priscilla holds her head high.

But she can’t ignore everything. When she catches her mother in the arms of her former high school principal, Priscilla can’t get out of town fast enough. Eager to get back to her more comfortable life, Priscilla runs head on into an ultimatum: Tim tells her they’re not getting any younger—as if she has to be reminded.

My Review:
Although this is the third book in the Class Reunion Series, it's the first one I've read. Even though I'd not read the first two, I found the plot easy to follow. I enjoyed Tickled Pink so much that I plan to go back and read the first two: Pretty is as Pretty Does and Bless Her Heart.

Characters are well written such that they sound like real people I'd enjoy knowing. They have flaws--just as we all do. Each chapter is titled with the name of one of five characters--Priscilla Slater, Laura Moss, Tim Puckett, Trudy Baynard, and Celeste Boudreaux Shackleford. They rotate and tell the story in first-person point of view. All five characters are involved in the twenty-year high school reunion, and their situations ring true to life.

Dialog from characters in Mississippi is spot on. Scenes in the beauty salon and TV production studio is informative.

Discussion questions are included. Folks, I highly recommend this chick-lit!

Thank you to Bonnie at Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and Abingdon Press for my copy.

If you would like to buy a copy, click here or on each title of the first two books in the series.