I totally enjoyed the first part of Dreaming Southern by Linda Bruckheimer. The heroine, Lila Mae Wooten, reminded me of a sort of Lucy Ricardo/Carmichael from Kentucky. She means well but is so scatterbrained and impulsive, she just gets herself and her kids into all kinds of crazy messes. She even has a sort of Ethel-like sidekick with a juvenile delingquent son. I alternated between laughing and rolling my eyes at all the predicaments the Wootens get into because of Lila Mae's desire to see the sights and please her kids. The trouble is ... just when I found myself at what I thought was a truly hilarious cliff hanger, the whole thing stopped. A new story took over then, one taking place about 30 years later. Wait a minute, I wanted to say. That can't be all. What happened to...? and to ...?
I was hooked by the opening line: "Usually Lila Mae Wooten had to scream bloody murder before her kids would pay any attention to her at all..." A lot of us moms have felt that way, right? I was really disappointed, though, because I felt like I walked into a booby trap and fell down a tiger trap or something.
Oh well.