Peggy Webb

Every once in a while, you read a story that you know will stay with you for a long, long time. For me, this is that book. A little bit DRIVING MISS DAISY, a little bit FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, and a small dash of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE make this one of the most heartfelt-and funny-books that I've read recently. If you haven't read a book in Harlequin's new NEXT line, you need to. And you need to start with DRIVING ME CRAZY.

Maggie Dufrane is forty-one, recently divorced from Stanley. She's also show more the sister of forty-three year-old Jean, one of the women who gave original wring-your-hands, bring-on-the-tears Southern belles their name. She's also the daughter of Mama, a formidable woman who's into theatrics, good cooking, and making the lives of her daughters very, very interesting. When Mama takes a fall in her home and can't get up, it's up to Maggie and Jean to rescue her-through an open window-and get her to the hospital. When they learn that their Mama is suffering from congestive heart failure, their lives suddenly get a lot more complicated.

Maggie has always been a take-charge type of woman. Now, though, she's dealing with Jean's typical over-the-top tales of doom about their Mama's health. She now has a new houseguest, her Mama's dog Jefferson, who has a nervous disorder that makes him lose his hair when he's stressed. Not to mention that she's somehow come into contact with Tupelo's most famous radio DJ, Joseph "Rainman" Jones. As Maggie deals with all the turmoil in her life, including but not limited to waiting to hear from her editor about her new mystery manuscript, she wonders how life could possibly get any more complicated.

I absolutely loved DRIVING ME CRAZY. It's a story that captures every nuance of life, from dealing with your mother, to coping with your sister, to dealing with love and attraction during a time in your life when you shouldn't have the desire for anything remotely romantic. Told with heartfelt prose, Peggy Webb has penned a story that will leave you with both a smile and a tear, and you'll be able to tell immediately that she was telling the truth when she mentions in her introduction that her own Mama was her muse for the story. This is a definite winner, and you won't be disappointed in the least. show less

Author Anna Michaels (who also writes the Southern Cousins mystery series as Peggy Webb) has probably bitten off more than she can chew with this supernatural murder mystery that tosses in way too many plot elements -- a disgraced ex-cop, the ghost of the murder victim, Native American spiritualism, long-buried family secrets, and professional rodeo.

It's an engaging, but somewhat uneven read, as Jo Beth Dawson, alcoholic ex-cop, discovers the body of a young woman at a remote trailer show more campground, buried under a blanket of Cherokee roses. Michaels immediately establishes that a form of magical realism is going to permeate this story, as the roses have, in just a few hours, overgrown Pony Jones' body and burst into blooms which begin to wither as soon as the young woman's body is removed. Her spirit, it turns out, is hanging around, explaining herself to the reader, and bugging Dawson to pull herself together and find the killer. The sudden appearance and scent of the wildflowers permeates the story, often heralding the touching of this world and the other.

Some scenes, some moments, are lovely; others get buried under an avalanche of complications as Pony's mountain-man father inserts himself into the investigation, long-buried family secrets are revealed, Pony's Native American uncle tries to head off the grieving father, and the local cops (one of whom is Jo Beth's ex-partner) try to keep the civilians out of the way long enough to identify and catch the killer.

Overall, it's not a bad read, but it is a bit rough around the edges, and the supernatural elements may prove a bit tough for some readers to swallow, particularly in the denouement. 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

An interesting idea, but watered down with selective blindness and saccharine sentiment. Set in 1950s Mississippi - although the era probably only serves to ground the story in the author's childhood and the characters wouldn't be out of place in modern day chick lit - a young black girl whose mother is dying of cancer is adopted by the white widow of her real father. And apart from a few hostile comments and a door daubed with graffiti, that's perfectly fine! Even though I was under the show more impression that the story was going to cover the impact of the adoption and not the events leading up to the death of Billie's mother, the relative lack of racism was still surprising.

The characters are also decidedly flat. Despite barely knowing each other, terminally ill Betty Jewel and privileged cub reporter Cassie suddenly become firm and fast friends, extolling the 'I am woman, hear me roar' strength of womankind, which I found to be patently ridiculous. And then Betty Jewel, who lives with her mother and has two good friends who would no doubt share the guardianship of daughter Billie, decides that farming a black child out to a white woman in 1950s Mississippi is the perfect solution. Betty's friends are initially apprehensive, to say the least, but Cassie with her stubbornness, pride and brave pluck, soon wins them over, equally improbably.

And if the plot wasn't hard enough to swallow, Elaine Hussey's writing is similarly stiff and awkward, full of cliches ('I double-dog dare you') and an abundance of weak metaphors ('The roller coaster she'd been on since she found out about Joe tilted her over and threw her into space ... There was a river running wild in her, and she could no longer construct a dam.') I think the author was aiming for the poetic narrative of southern gothic novels, but missed the mark somewhat - the only part of story I believed was the description of food and the weather.

Unrealistic and lacking polish. show less