Peggy Webb

I have to admit that I found the first few pages of this mystery very bizarre. Oddball characters and a basset hound who thinks he's a reincarnation of Elvis. However, it's an ER book and I love cozies, especially Christmas mysteries, so I carried on and I'm really glad that I did.

Once I got past that oddness at the start, I loved this one. It's the fifth in the Southern Cousins series so I was starting in the middle of a continuing story but that wasn't a problem. I loved Callie, her cousin show more Lovie, and especially Callie's basset hound, Elvis. It all takes place around Tupelo, Mississippi. Santas and others at the mall seem to be getting bumped off and there's plenty of other Christmas-type things in the book.

The characters are colorful and quirky and it's a solid cozy, in terms of plot. Overall, I'd call it delightfully quirky and fun. I especially loved the malapropisms from one of Callie's relatives.

I intend to track down the first four books in this series. Highly recommended for people who like cozies!! show less

Racism in the south is like another character in this story of love and two women- one white and the other black. But calling it a story of love makes it sound sappy and predictable - and that is to short change it. This is a story of worlds crashing and reshaping in the midst of deep heart break! A story of strength and frailty.

Betty Jewel is a washed up jazz singer who burned brightly with Saint a famous trumpeter. But drugs and fame soured everything and Betty Jewel fled from her show more marriage to Shakerag, Mississippi to be with her mama and raise her daughter. In a last ditch effort to save that daughter, she takes out an ad in the local paper looking for someone to adopt her girl after she passes from cancer.

Cassie is the lily white widow of a much beloved local coach. Since his death she has floundered her way through life barely living and depending on her job at the local newspaper to keep her going. She notices the ad and decides it would make a wonderful human interest story.

And thus the worlds crash.

But - this is not a touchy feely feel good story.

At the heart of this story is a 10 year old girl who will soon be without a mama. Billie, who sneaks around listening at keyholes, can not imagine a life without her mama - unless she is able to find her papa - Saint - and life with him.

Laid across the top of this story is the busted history of Jim Crow laws and lynchings in the south.

There were times this felt like a different version of The Help. But, Betty Jewel and Cassie are not merely telling a story - they are living it. Their lives are interwoven in a way that the south can not rip apart.

I really liked this book. I especially liked Billie. After teaching 10 year olds all those years - I felt like I knew her innocent and bare face. Her bravado and her depth of pain were real to me! The fantasies that she creates and believes in even while she knowing they can't be real - rang true!

I would recommend this!! show less

Can someone please put a ZERO STARS rating in these reviews?

TAMING MAGGIE by Peggy Webb, was, in a word, vomit worthy. The "heroine" goes from being a strong, determined, honorable woman, an animal rights activist with a good heart and a wonderful soul, to being a weak willed, whiny, oversexed second grade teacher with no backbone, no will, and a mind wrapped around falling into bed with a totally useless spoiled rotten rich boy. A rich boy who is not only determined to put Maggie in her show more place, to "tame" her (what, is she some kind of illiterate savage to be 'tamed'?), but is also a hunter. A man who rants about how "noble" hunting is, how "manly" while hiding in blinds, sneaking around downwind, and then shooting defenseless animals from far away with high powered rifles. Oh, yea. Manly" and "powerful" and "noble"..... wow. Sort of like holding down children and beating them to death is! Yea! If hunting is so "manly" why doesn't her little rich boy get himself a knife and go stalk his prey and take it down with knife and his teeth? Now THAT would be manly. What this guy and all his little buddies do is cowardly - and she laps it up like a dog licking his privates.

So. No matter how well she was raised by her widowed father to be a strong, independent, loving woman with principles, we get her panting after the guy like a mindless bitch in heat - even though he stands for everything she hates and is determined to fight against. She might as well have laid on the ground and let him wipe his feet on her. Actually, that is exactly what she does in this disaster of a book.

It was actually disappointing in that I really thought, at first, that she was going to be a character I could like - until she rolled over and showed her belly. Ugh. There were multiple opportunities for her to state her case in a reasonable, logical manner. Instead, the author makes her 'heroine' basically illiterate. Instead of standing up on the check writing table in the little rich boys bank and stating her case after he humiliates her in the paper, she blathers and goes all weak in the knees over "Oh, he's so hot!" God. 12 much? Oh, I am sure there was an HEA at the end, but I couldn't make it even a third of the way through before wishing it was in paper so I could rip the book up and use it to line the cat box.

0 stars, and can someone hand me a trash can so I can toss my Christmas Cookies?? show less

Bubby: I have to give props to Sissy on this one. I was not overly interested in reading The Language of Silence. I have difficulty reading or watching anything that deals with domestic violence or the abuse of children. I’m just too much of a softie. And circuses have clowns and clowns scare me because they are creepy. Put the two together and I decided that this was not a book for me. But Sissy made me read it. And I am glad. It was great. I really hate to say it, but Sissy was right. show more This time.

Sissy: Do we have to keep revisiting the old sad theme of how I’m always right? The language of Silence was maddening to read, at times, because it is so hard for a person not in an abusive relationship to understand how difficult it is to get out of one. A normal reaction would be to say to the victim, “Just leave the bum. No one is allowed to treat you that way. Call the cops!” It seems so cut and dried. But it’s so not. The thing that made this book readable and not just another sorry sad tale was the magic in it. Read full review at www.bubblebathbooks.net show less