Lois Battle (1939–2014)

This is a delightful, funny and warm-hearted novel about a group of women in a town near the Alabama-Florida border. After losing her wealthy husband and comfortable lifestyle to bankruptcy, Bonnie Duke-Cullman takes on a job as a counsellor for a group of 'displaced homemakers', or middle-aged women from poor backgrounds with little or no education, who have just been made redundant at a local lingerie factory.

The main premise is about sisters doing it for themselves ('You go, girl!'), but show more the characters are all so wonderfully drawn and sympathetic, especially colourful Hilly and poor Ruth, that the motivational message is (almost) woven seamlessly into the story of their lives. Southern chick lit, perhaps, but in the world-weary, sharp-tongued community spirit of films like 'Steel Magnolias', which is a guilty pleasure of mine! Hilly's romance with the owner of a Mexican restaurant almost put me off, if only because Jess is such a terrible caricature, but Bonnie's mad fling with Riz neutralises the saccharine flavour of that Happy Ever After!

All in all a quick, light read, with a group of entertaining and likeable ladies. show less

This is the story of two very different women living in 1880s New Orleans. Innocent Kate - seduced by a rake and abandoned - turns to a life of prostitution to support herself. She wins the heart of the wealthy son of a distinguished New Orleans family. Meanwhile, transplanted Boston blueblood, suffragette Julia, has just discovered that her husband Charles owns brothels in Storyville, the prostitution district of New Orleans.

This severely damages their marriage through Julia's bitterness show more and lack of trust. Eventually, tragedy adds another dimension to their domestic squabbling; then Julia befriends the luckless Kate and comes into her own as a activist for women's rights. I liked this story very much, although I did think that it was a little slow for me to get into at the beginning. I give it an A+! show less

Josie Tatternal is a people pleaser. A widow, she runs a bed and breakfast in the large old home she insisted her husband buy when he retired from the military. After all those years of moving constantly she wanted roots, and the place next to her sister’s home was for sale. But the home she envisioned didn’t quite come to fruition. Her husband descended into alcoholism and died. Her three daughters grew up and left – only the middle child, Lila, is living nearby with her husband and show more children. So now Josie entertains paying guests at her bed and breakfast to gain enough income to keep the place. A friend’s heart attack makes her long for more closeness with her girls, so she invites all of them home for Christmas. The resulting stew of repressed emotions, long-held grudges, sibling rivalry and disappointments held over for decades boils over on Christmas Eve.

There’s some good material here. Battle has given us a family dynamic ripe for dissection. There are so many conflicts and potential land mines that the reader begins to feel somewhat unsettled. But at the center there is Josie –smoothing the way, building bridges, or at least trying to, and giving every appearance of being capable and calm. Frankly I think the plot got away from Battle. She went in so many directions that none of the subplots was fully developed. The final chapter feels anticlimactic, and I’m left feeling dissatisfied. show less

While the plot and story are good, I found the author's STYLE of writing irksome.