I wanted to like this book, but I found it silly. I've not read Fern Michaels before and after this, I doubt I would seek out any more books by her.

Toots Loudenberry seems to feel that there's no problem she can't solve if she just throws enough money at it. She's depressed after her eighth husband's death and decides she wants her three closest friends to visit. She pays for a ticket for one and her dog and arranges round-the-clock nursing care for the husband of another. She's dismayed to find that the friend with the dog is obese and plans to spend a lot of money to slim her down. She wants to get her germaphobic friend into treatment. She finds out her daughter's job is in danger when the tabloid owner needs to sell to settle gambling debts and not only decides to buy the business, but also thinks all 4 of them need to go to California for 6 months! Even as a senior citizen, who can afford to ignore their own life for 6 full months?!

The women don't have good views of marriage. Toots has been married 8 times and seems very jaded about the husband she just buried. She's more concerned with how quickly she can stop wearing black than she is in missing him. Her friend Sophie is bemoaning the fact that her husband isn't dying fast enough--apparently she only wants him for his money.

The reality is that money doesn't fix everything and it doesn't mean you'll be happy. There is more to marriage than getting money--something at least a couple of these ladies seem to have forgotten.

There's apparently a lot of backstory that doesn't seem to be addressed. I was surprised to find this was the first book in the series because reading it, I assumed there were previous books that explained some of the gaps. ( )

What a difference between the women friends in "The Book Club" by Mary Alice Monroe and "The Scoop". Without a doubt, I want to spend more time with Teresa "Toots" Amelia Loudenberry, Sophie, Mavis and Ida. Fun, fun, fun!!! This is the first of a series entitled "The Godmothers" and I can't wait to read the other titles. ( )

I usually love books by Fern Michaels. This one, not so much. It was obviously written to set up a sequel. There was barely a storyline, and what was there was uninteresting and baddly developed. ( )