Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter

Southern Belle Leelee Satterfield is surprised but ultimately supportive when her husband announces that his dream is to quit the family insurance business and buy an inn in Vermont. So she says goodbye to her life-long friends in Memphis, and with their two small daughters, moves the family to Vermont. But no one told her about Mud season or “vampire insects in summer. And when her husband takes off with a local divorcee, Leelee is left stranded in the frozen north with nary a friend in sight.

This is a typical chick-lit romance, featuring a naïve southern belle who still wishes “Daddy” were there to save her. Granted, Leelee is not a complete doormat; she does manage to get a spine and make the most of what she’s been handed. show more But the entire scenario is just too ridiculous for my taste. The characters are one-dimensional stereotypes, the situations are unbelievable, and the romance seems secondary. There were some scenes which were interesting – the disastrous New Year’s Eve where everything that can go wrong does, but Leelee and her team still triumph was entertaining.

Marguerite Gavin has decent pacing on the audio version, but I didn’t like her accent either for the Southern characters or the Vermonters. show less

If I ever wrote a book, this would be it. I've asked myself before, "In creating a story, what is your thing?" What is that 'thing' about my life that is unique and worth telling? Well, I don't have much. The only thing I've ever been able to think of is that I'm a Southerner living in the North, but I lack the creativity to make that a story. And then I found this book.

Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter is author Lisa Patton's debut novel. A Tennessee native accustomed to long summers and brief winters, she spent three long, brutally cold winters running an inn in Vermont. And thus, a story was born.

Leelee Satterfield is happy with her life in Memphis. She's got her family, her four best friends, her husband she's loved since the tenth show more grade, and their two beautiful daughters. When her husband Baker gets a little antsy, he is inspired to buy a Vermont inn and haul the family North to run the bed-and-breakfast. And Leelee agrees...only because she has been love with him forever. But things don't go as smoothly as Leelee hopes and not only is her relationship on the rocks, Vermont is COLD. When Baker picks up and leaves Leelee with the inn, she must try to make the best of her misery and prove she's not just a helpless Southern belle.

I swear Lisa Patton was reading my mind as she wrote this. Either that or we think eerily alike. Our shared bitter hatred of the cold is one thing, but she goes into such detail on the tiny nuances that are so defining of me and my life up here. Like:

"Memphis is my home. It always will be no matter where I live."
"I know people say the summer is sweltering, but it never bothers me."
Vermont = "a foreign corner of American" that is "sooo Yankeeish"
"When I took my first sip, I could tell right away that it was Pepsi. I hate Pepsi."
"...Northerners believe that anywhere with less than one million people is only a town." [We don't do 'towns' in the South.]
"Barbecue to Northerners meant 'grilling out' so if I wanted a barbecue sandwich I might as well set my tastebuds on a hamburger." [The word 'barbecue': North = verb, South = food.]
Not to mention references to Corky's barbecue, Johnny Majors and Neyland Stadium, Mother's Day Out, and First Tennessee Bank—those little familiarities that you forget don't exist everywhere.

Needless to say, I loved this book. A well-developed main character that grew as the plot progressed, an entertaining ensemble of supporting characters, and a pleasing but not lame ending. I may be a little biased for this book for all the reasons mentioned above, but I still think it'd be an enjoyable (and hilarious) read for people anywhere in the country (or outside of it!). show less

When Baker Satterfield decides he is tired of his Memphis insurance business and wants to become a Vermont, everyone, including his wife LeeLee, thinks he is crazy. LeeLee knows that she'll take her two girls and follow him even though she has no desire to leave her beloved Memphis. Things are even worse than she could have ever imagined when she gets there and when the unthinkable happens, LeeLee has to find her fire and make things work out -- in this land of cold and snow (and mud during the thaw). Having lived in Memphis, I saw a lot of what I think of as a typical upper middle class native Memphian in LeeLee. While Lisa Patton's Southern characters were fairly well fleshed out, I found that she did not do quite so well on the show more Vermont ones -- and since that is where most of the book was set, I think there is a bit of a flaw in that even though it is possible the author was trying to show a bit of New England reserve whereas the Southern ones "just let it hang out." Some people might be disappointed in the ending of the book, but I see LeeLee doing exactly what most native Memphians would do. In spite of the character flaws, it was an enjoyable read that had me laughing out loud at times. show less

This is especially funny if you are from Vermont as seeing our lives through a southern perspective is quite entertaining! I loved the strength and fortitude that Leelee has in putting on that sweet southern hospitality in the frigid north. The characters are fun to love and fun to hate. 😂

This is chick lit at its best. There are clichés but some of the funniest scenes occur here. Leelee is taken from the South and plunked into Vermont where her husband, using her money, buys a ski lodge. She has to adjust to all the changes and then he leaves her to run it alone. Her Southern friends come through and she discovers herself and the strength that is in her. I loved Leelee. Hated Baker, her husband. What a jerk! The secondary characters are a good mix of Southern and Northern. I liked that Leelee learned she had the abilities to handle what Baker threw at her when he left her. I also liked that she created a family where she was. She grew where she was planted and I want to see what happens to her later.

Sometimes, the southern fiction genre can kind of end up overwhelming itself with all of the cliches and stereotypes. I'll admit that I was afraid that was going to happen with this one in its early pages, but am happy to report that it shook off my early misgivings and ended up being quite an enjoyable read.

LeeLee Satterfield, after having loved her husband Baker for half of her life, is quite contented with that life. Until one evening Baker announces that he cannot bear HIS life any longer, and wants to buy a bed and breakfast in Vermont. Despite her Memphis friends' insinuations that she gives entirely too much of herself -not to mention family money - to a husband who doesn't reciprocate, LeeLee packs up her family and heads north. show more Rather typical fish-out-of-water hijinks ensue, with money problems, weather shock, and taciturn northerners.

And then the unthinkable happens. Baker, unhappy with the very sacrifices that he insisted would be the cure to his unhappiness, bolts for an older, wealthier woman, in order to manager her ski lodge. This leaves LeeLee and her daughters to the damp, cold uninviting B & B. What will LeeLee do? Will she head home, like her friends are telling her to do? Or will she stay and try to make something of her investment? And what about that good-lookin' chef?

I am from the south, and have never been to Vermont, though I can pick it out on a map, unlike many southern women in these tales. As a result, I often can buy even the most ridiculous southern cliches, because I've probably seen at least one example of every one of them. But it kind of leaves me hamstrung when it comes to northern cliches. Would anyone actually deliver a cake that a rat had walked across? And if they would, would they tell it upon delivery?

Despite such lingering questions, in the end I immensely enjoyed this, and was tickled to see that there is going to be a sequel coming soon, Nicely done. show less

I really enjoyed this book. Some of the plot twists were hard to follow, but the central story of a transplanted Southerner who makes her way in freezing Vermont, runs an inn and keeps her sense of humor about her, was heartwarming and clever. It was fun seeing my native New England through the eyes of someone who had lived in Tennessee her whole life.