Audio Book Review: Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

Author: Anne Rivers Siddons
Publisher/Format: Hachette Audio approx 9 hrs
Year of publication: 2011
Subject: Love lost and found
Setting:North Carolina mountains, Atlanta and environs
Genre: southern fiction
Source: Hachette Audio

Anne Rivers Siddons is one of my favorite authors.  Her writing is some of the best in southern fiction today.  Audio is one of my favorite formats for fiction, so when Hachette Audio offered me the chance to review this one in audio, I jumped at it.

The story took a while to develop.  Reminiscent of some of her others, and of Pat Conroy's southern angst, Siddons defines her characters by their relationships to family, and by their adherence to that ancient Southern code of manners, high society, and propriety.  We see our protagonist, Thayer Wentworth, as she struggles with tom-boy-ism to thwart her mother's attempts to turn her into the Southern Belle she (mom) never had the chance to be. And although it took awhile to get going, along the way we watch as Thayer finds her first love at summer camp, is betrayed by people she trusts, endures loneliness upon leaving home, and ultimately finds love in the arms of a charming Irishman.

Now here's the only part I personally had trouble with.  If you're into Irish mythology and poetry, you will love this book. If dark handsome studs wallowing in magic spells is your cuppa tea, you will love this book.  The rest of us have to suspend our disbelief a bit and continue on.  In the end, Siddons gives us an exceptionally well-written character study with an ending that had two different paths she could have taken.  Some will like the way it ends, others I'm sure would have preferred the second option.  Either way, it's a good solid romance that will add to the author's stature.

Kate Reading does an outstanding job narrating.  Hachette has another winner on its hands.
Thanks to Mitch at Hachette for the chance to review it.

Cozy Time: More Miss Julia

Author: Ann B. Ross
Publisher Format: Recorded Books, 10 hrs
Narrator: Cynthia Darlow
Year of publication: 2005
Subject: southern manners, marriage, beauty pageants
Setting: Abbotsville, NC
Series: Miss Julia
Genre: southern fiction, humor
Source: Net Library download

Well, Miss Julia has gone and done it this time! She and her long-time friend, mentor/attorney Sam Murdoch have eloped to a marriage mill in Tennessee and honeymooned at Dollywood. Shortly after their return to town, but after they'd already hired carpenters who had demolished half Miss J's house to fit it out so everyone (Julia and Sam, Hazel Mae and little Lloyd) could live under one roof, they discover that the "reverend" who officiated at the nuptials may not in fact have been a rev at all, and their marriage may not be legal.

Naturally Miss Julia's southern sense of properness and morality is totally in chaos; she banishes Sam to a separate bedroom, refuses to go through with another ceremony (that would announce to the world that they'd been living in sin!!!!) and sends Sam off to "fix it."  At the same time, Hazel Marie decides to hostess a beauty pageant, Julia's best friend wants to throw her a wedding reception, and poor Miss Julia just can't seem to handle it.  As usual, Ann B. Ross does a wonderful job of keeping us guessing about the outcome of all these challenges and manages to give us some tension, some concern, and plenty of humor as the various characters work through life.

These are fun stories.  Miss Julia has just the right amount of ditziness and brains to make them believable and Hazel Mae adds the perfect foil of fun loving devil-may-care to counter Miss Julia's prissiness. Think Golden Girls with Betty White as Miss Julia and a young Rue McClanahan as Hazel Mae.  I'm not sure I could take these as a steady diet, but they are certainly well done - - especially in audio.

Recorded books has done a wonderful job with the various accents in these and I have no trouble following who is speaking or narrating with the excellent narration of Cynthia Darrow.  Her ability to present different voices is exceptional and well suited to this story.

Review: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Author: Beth Hoffman
Format: Pamela Dorman Books (2010), Hardcover, 320 pages
Characters: CeeCee, Aunt Tootie, Oleta, Mrs. O'Dell
Subject: mental illness, emotional child abuse
Setting: Ohio, and Savannah Georgia
Genre: Fiction
Source: won in a blog contest from Tome Traveler's Weblog
Challenge: Read from my Shelves


This book has true Southern charm, and true Southern angst. CeeCee Honeycutt lives the first twelve years of her life in Ohio with a mother who is classically demented (bi-polar disorder?): she is still living out her glory days as Miss Vidalia Onion 1951, embarrassing CeeCee at every turn. Her father is unable to cope with such looniness and takes a 'traveling' job, stopping in only occasionally to leave some money, or pick up something from home.

When her mother is killed in an auto accident, Daddy decides to send her to live with her great aunt Tootie in Savannah Georgia. There, Tootie and her charming Southern lady friends, their causes, their lifestyle, and their love, all help CeeCee recover from the emotional havoc wreaked on her by such poor parenting.

The story is charming, the characters are people we'd love to meet and with whom we'd love to have a glass of iced tea. The plot is not overly involved, or complicated, but the book's strength is in the excellent character development and great southern dialect.