"A Bad Day for Sorry (Bad Day #1)" by Sophie Littlefield

288 pages

Middle-aged widow Stella Hardesty owns and operates a sewing shop in rural Missouri. Sounds pretty tame, but that's just her day job. She also has a side business helping battered women with the abusive men in their lives. As a former domestic violence victim herself, Stella knows what her clients are going through and she knows how to help them. But when young Chrissy Shaw asks her for help, Stella realizes she might be in over her head, as Chrissy's deadbeat wife-beating husband ran off with their two-year-old boy. When Stella and Chrissy realize there might be drug dealers involved as well (long story), the search for the boy becomes even more desperate.

Though you can't tell from the description, this is a pretty funny book. In the style of Janet Evanovich's work, Hardesty's wacky characters get into all kinds of shenanigans but always come out on top. I really like Stella's voice and the way that she became her badass self at an older age. She shows that it's never too late to turn your life around. The secondary characters, particularly Chrissy and Stella's preteen neighbor Todd, really come to life as well. The plot is all over the place, but I'm okay with that. I feel like it's one of those mysteries where you don't try to figure out what happens--you just sit back and enjoy the twists and turns. And enjoy them I did.  

"Bad Day For Pretty (Bad Day #2)" by Sophie Littlefield

304 pages 

Most residents of the small Missouri town Stella Hardesty calls home know her as the feisty, middle-aged owner of the local sewing shop. Few, however, know about her unusual, not-quite-legal side business, which involves roughing up the men who rough up their women. Things are going fine for Stella until Brandy shows up. She’s the scheming ex-wife of Sheriff “Goat” Jones, whom Stella was just starting to get cozy with. To make matters worse, a tornado blows through town and destroys the snack shack at the demolition derby track, pulling up the foundation and exposing a woman’s body that had been buried below. All signs point to Neb Donovan as the killer—he laid the foundation, and it’s no big secret that Neb was a different man during that time since he was still addicted to pain killers back then. But Stella knows Neb and can’t believe he’d hurt a fly, and his frantic wife begs Stella to investigate and clear her husband’s name. As usual, Stella is soon in way over her head and her own life might even be at stake.

I messed up and read this second book before its predecessor, Bad Day for Sorry, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of this story. Stella reminds me of an older, funnier, and tougher version of Stephanie Plum. And, okay, more hillbilly. I found the humor clever and the characters real, relatable, and loveable. Another advantage this book has over Evanovich is that there’s an actual mystery, with twists, turns, and surprises. The main reason I liked it, though, is that it reminded me of my own small hometown and it just cracked me up. I’ll definitely be ready the rest of the series, and I recommend it for anyone who likes Evanovich or other humorous mysteries.

America's Boy by Wade Rouse

pp340
I went to college with Wade and while I didn't know him well, I remembered him having a sharp wit which could be cutting.  My mental picture of him is a somewhat heavy kid with glasses who wore an oversized knit sweater...a lot.  When Wade's book came out, I told myself I would read it someday.  It caused a bit of a stir because he was publicly announcing he was gay.  No one who really cared about Wade minded that he was gay but a number of people were upset that he wasn't able to be honest about it. 
I thought Wade's book was wonderful.  He paints a picture of growing up different in a small, rural community, finding comfort of sorts by stuffing himself with food.  At one point he talks about how it was more acceptable to be fat than to be gay.  His portrayal of family members is poignant and sometimes downright hilarious.  His honest picture of what it was like when he gave up food and embraced exercise, finally admitted his sexual orientation and his first forays into dating as a gay man and his ultimate discovery of Gary, the love of his life are told with self-depricating humor and frankness.
Ultimately, Wade's family accepted him in ways he didn't realize until he came to terms with his own feelings about himself.  We all have family issues but Wade's book showed his family realistically but lovingly.  That's not easy to achieve.
Kimf

Grounded

Grounded by Kate Klise, 208 pages

"I'm alive today because I was grounded." So starts 12-year-old Daralynn's story of why she remains alive after her father, sister and brother were killed when a plane piloted by her father crashed. The loss has transformed her mother into a bitter, angry woman who begins her own business as a hair stylist for the local funeral home after everyone admires the wonderful job she's done on her children and husband for their funerals. When Mr. Clem, a stranger with plans to build a crematorium, appears in town, the funeral home's continued success -- and Mother's job there -- is threatened, and Daralynn decides to take action. Her idea to host "living funerals" is successful, but only results in more competition for the funeral home and a growing distrust of Mr. Clem, who is as successful at courting Daralynn's aunt as he is in convincing the town folk that cremation is the wave of the future.

Daralynn's voice is wonderful and convincing, and Klise's setting and storytelling are reminiscent of Richard Peck's wonderful books about small towns and the characters who populate them. I loved this book and read it in one setting. Klise has created a fully-formed town, charming and engaging characters and a story full of humor, mystery and good, old-fashioned storytelling. For a book about the death of one young girl's parent and siblings, Klise manages to keep the reader engaged in Daralynn's loneliness, development and growth with humor and wit. I think this is Klise's best book so far, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys storytelling on par with "A Long Way from Chicago" and "Moon Over Manifest."
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