About this book:
“In a small town where gossip flows like sweet tea, bedridden Mary Ruth McCready reigns supreme, doling out wisdom and meddling in everyone's business with a fervor that would make a matchmaker blush. When her best friend, Charlotte Harrington, has her world rocked by a scandalous revelation from her dying husband P. B., Mary Ruth kicks into high gear, commandeering the help of her favorite granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth, in tracking down the truth. Finding clues in funeral condolence cards and decades-old gossip dredged up at the Blue Moon Beauty Emporium, the two stir up trouble faster than you can say "pecan pie."
And just when things are starting to look up, in waltzes Camilla "Millie" Holtgrew, a blast from P. B.'s past, with a grown son and an outrageous claim to Charlotte's inheritance. But as Grandma Ruth always says when things get tough, "God is too big." With him, nothing is impossible--even bringing long-held secrets to light. Grandma Ruth and Sarah just might have to ruffle a whole mess of feathers to do it.”
Series: As of now, it seems to be a stand-alone novel.
Spiritual Content- Lamentations 3:22 at the beginning; A couple prayers; Going to church for a funeral and hearing prayers and a benediction; ‘H’s are not capital when referring to God; Sarah wonders why God let something heartbreaking happen to her and hasn’t prayed much since then (feeling like that all her life her prayers do not reach God); Sarah recalls thinking about the Scripture about “God doing exceedingly more than you could ask or think” when a boy asks her out (because he was super cute and older than her so she never thought he would look her way); When sad, Sarah wound think that God was “too big” to care about her and her suffering; Sarah just thinks with a snort that God isn’t going to help her or another lady with their heartbreaks and pain despite the fact they are good women; *Spoiler* The final line of the book is Sarah thinking that God “was indeed too big--too big for [her] to have imagined what he had in store for [her].” (this comes after the start of a possibly successful relationship) *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going (including for funerals), services, priests and deacons, & denominations (Episcopal & Lutheran); A few mentions of Heaven (including referencing the “pearly gates”); A few mentions of hymns; A couple mentions of Scriptures; A mention of swearing on a Bible; A mention of confessions to a priest; A mention of pre-marriage counseling sessions with a priest; A mention of angels; A mention of incense;
*Note: Sarah exclaims “Hallelujah” when something is clean; Religious phrases: a ‘for heaven’s sake’ and two ‘speak of the devil’s; A comment about a man being a “handsome devil” (x3); Mentions of luck & being lucky; A mention of crossing fingers for luck; A mention of the “savior complex” when dating; A mention of the Masters Golf Tournament being a “sacred” week; A mention of it being a cold day in “you-know-where” before something happens; A mention of someone’s voice being a “siren song”.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘da—‘ that Sarah cuts off and corrects to ‘darn good’, a ‘dumb’, a ‘shoot’, a ‘stupid’, a ‘sucker’, an unfinished ‘what the—‘, two ‘good grief’s, two forms of ‘heck’, and two ‘idiot’s; A bit of lying (to get answers); Eye rolling; Eavesdropping; Gossiping and listening to gossip (which Sarah’s grandmother says she gathers information, not gossip); Sarah is tempted to gossip about a deceased person, but does not for fear of her grandmother giving her a lecture about gossiping; Viewing a body at a funeral & seeing grief from a wife over her late husband (up to semi-detailed); A misunderstanding on why a woman’s brownies are “very…calming effect” on people (someone thinks that’s implying pot, but it’s not); Sarah orders wine at a restaurant; Many mentions of deaths, seeing loved ones pass away, bodies being viewed at funerals, & grief (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of gossip, rumors & eavesdropping; Mentions of seeing a man throwing a plate at his wife (due to his toast being partially burnt); Mentions of car accidents; Mentions of betting/gambling, poker, & gambling addictions; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of divorces/separations; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, & getting drunk/tipsy (including a widow drinking many glasses of wine after a funeral for her husband); Mentions of frat parties (which high school senior Sarah wants to go to, but her parents didn’t let her); A few mentions of drugs/marijuana; A couple mentions of murders & murderers (in books); A couple mentions of smoking & a cigar; A mention of World War II;
*Note: Sarah’s grandmother is bedridden due to a prior broken hip; Sarah is impressed by her grandmother referring to a woman with the “modern title” of “Ms.” instead of fussing over whether the woman was married or not; A poem is partially quoted by Robert Frost; Mentions of car brands; Mention of TV shows, movies, actors, & actresses (Jeopardy!, Beauty and the Beast, Jerry Springer, Audrey Hepburn, Rhett Butler, & Miss America); Mention of brand names (the Energizer Bunny, Crock-Pot, Tupperware, Wrigley’s gum, Kate Spade, Burberry, Maybelline, Rolex, & Scrabble); Mentions of businesses (Home Depot & Dairy Queen); Mentions of Boy Scouts; A few websites (Google & LinkedIn); A couple mentions of vaccinations & receiving one; A mention of global warming; A mention of the Super Bowl.
Sexual Content- a cheek kiss and a semi-detailed kiss; Remembering kisses & “steamy tussles” (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Hand holding, Shivers, & Nearness (including unwanted ones, up to semi-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing (up to semi-detailed); Sarah’s heart is broken after a previous betrayal and does not dare to trust any man again (being very firm about this and not believing she is missing anything by being single unlike everyone else around her thinks; This is because of the guy who broke her heart and is trying to get her back; *Spoilers* He played her and was very slick, but ended up cheating on her with another girl; He calls her a few times and says he needs her, but she tries to avoid his calls; When Sarah sounds sad and wishful about him calling, her best friend blocks his number for her; The guy continues to hang around her workplace to get her to go on a date with him again; She goes on one last date with the ex to get him to leave her alone (she wears a dress with a hint of cleavage and he wants her to take him back, but she sticks him with an expensive bill instead; The book ends with her going on a date with another guy and thinks that there may be more for their relationship *End of Spoilers*); *Spoilers, but referring to intimacy before marriage* Sarah would deny her ex-fiancé “nothing…except…well…except that” and because of it, he had an affair and blamed it on her wanting to wait for marriage; She mentions that “it’s the twenty-first century, and nobody waits until they get married anymore” and he made her feel like a “colossal nobody” for insisting on waiting; He said his affair was her fault because he wouldn’t have had an affair if she had “just given in” and that she was probably “frigid”, but while she reacted to him and his touch being “hot-blooded as the next coed”, her grandmother’s conversation about being worth waiting for and promising not to act on any desires until she was married would always keep her from “going over the brink”; Sarah wonders if it would have killed him to wait a few months until their wedding; Sarah recalls how “necking sessions” would turn into “steamy tussles” over her virtue with him *End of Spoilers*; Sarah says that’s just how “men are” when talking about one cheating on his wife (her grandmother firmly rejects this thought); Sarah’s grandmother says that “kissing sometimes leads to—“ and Sarah asks what she means with feigned innocence (her grandmother says there’s no need to spell it out); Sarah’s grandmother comments that a gentleman ought to marry a lady he got in the “family way” and when Sarah comments about the couple not behaving like ladies and gentlemen in the first place, her grandmother reminds her to remember that (which is no fear for Sarah as she isn’t going to date anyone again); Comments about men “fooling around” with women (including married men) & “sleeping around”; A man comments about not knowing that another man “had it in him” to have an affair with a tone of “wondering admiration” and makes a jab at Sarah when she says about failing to see how it is impressive to be unfaithful to a spouse; Many talks about cheating, cheaters, & possible affairs as Sarah is trying to figure out if a deceased man was unfaithful to his wife (*Major Spoilers* It’s revealed at the very end that the wife misheard her husband’s last words and thus he did not have an affair *End of Spoilers*); Three ‘hussy’s and a cut-off insult towards a woman; All about & many mentions of exes, cheating, being cheated on, a broken engagement due to cheating, scandals, & a man possibly having affair, mistress, and/or illegitimate children; Many mentions of women throwing themselves at men (including married men), wondering if a man was tempted by them, & one wanting a man to leave his wife for her after she got pregnant; Many mentions of boyfriends, “making moves” on someone, dating, & dates; Many mentions of flirting, flirtatious men and women, & winks; Mentions of a couple rushing to get married due to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy & the groom previously making a hint about not being the only one to enjoy the woman’s “favors”; Mentions of flings, a possible fling, & men “playing the field” and “sowing the wild oats”; Mentions of a couple having “clandestine meetings” at the movies (involving kissing); Mentions of kisses, kissing, & “necking”; Mentions of bad-boys, guys who are very slick, break-ups, & broken hearts; Mentions of crushes & being out of someone’s league; Mentions of a woman making goo-goo eyes at men at her workplace and wearing short skirts to snag a rich husband; Mention of a gold-digger (who also went after married men); A few mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of men staring at another women (despite being taken); A few mentions of a man always leaving the door open when with a female client or having someone else in the room; A mention of an older man possibly having an affair with a much younger woman; A mention of a woman’s sugar daddies; A mention of a woman taking “a bite or two” out of a man and having a child with him; A mention of getting someone’s mind “out of the gutter”; A mention of a man’s seductive eyes;
*Note: Sarah recalls her appearance changing for the better in her senior year of high school, except for her “ta-tas” which her grandmother dismissed her concerns by saying that “large ones were a decided liability” (Sarah disagrees with her about this as she saw which girls were getting all the attention); Sarah wears a dress that shows a “hint of cleavage” thanks to a push-up bra; Sarah wears a sweater dress that her grandmother says clings “in all the wrong places”; Sarah has no intention of getting married (this is possibly due to a prior broken engagement); Sarah’s grandmother calls men the “weaker sex”; A few mentions of a woman’s “curvaceous figure” and wearing low-cut outfits to get a man’s appearance; A mention of a woman’s low-cut blouse; A mention of a woman’s ample bosom; A mention of a push-up bra; A couple mentions of a man pressuring his daughter-in-law to try for a son after having three daughters.
-Sarah Elizabeth McCready, age 24
1st person P.O.V. of Sarah
248 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This was just messy. Being from the south, I understand about small town gossip and the dramatics, but this was just insane. The way Christianity was portrayed by Sarah’s busybody grandmother left a bad taste in my mouth with her justifying gossiping (which she says isn’t gossip but “information” and yet always goes through town quickly—hmm, sounds like gossip to me). This book did not show Christian values at all.
Our main character is judgmental, listening to gossip left and right for the sake of “solving” a mystery about a possible affair, and mad at God for her own stupid actions. This did not feel like a Christian book at all with all the gossip and affairs—and ends with no resolution on Sarah’s anger at God besides a comment as the last line of the book. Sarah had more fear of her grandmother than God. Tons of euphemisms about affairs and sleeping around. I ended up finishing this book out of spite because it was so ridiculous.
This was not a Christian Fiction book, it was a knock-off a bad ‘Murder, She Wrote’ episode.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
