Book Review: Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise

Newly widowed Charlotte Figg purchases a double-wide trailer sight unseen and moves to the Paradise Trailer Park with her dog, Lucky. Unfortunately, neither the trailer nor Paradise are what Charlotte expected. Her trailer is a ramshackle old place in need of major repair, and the people of Paradise are harboring more secrets than Bayer has aspirin. Charlotte’s new friend Rose Tattoo learns that Charlotte played softball and convinces her to rally the women of Paradise into a team. Reluctant at first, Charlotte warms to the notion and is soon coaching the Paradise Angels. Meanwhile, Charlotte discovers that the manager of Paradise, Fergus Wrinkel, abuses his wife, Suzy. Charlotte sets out to find a way to save Suzy from Fergus and in the process comes to a difficult realization about her own painful marriage.

Joyce Magnin is the author of The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow, chosen as one of the “Top 5 Best Christian Fiction Books of 2009” by Library Journal. She’s written several short fiction and personal experience articles. She co-authored the book, Linked to Someone in Pain. She has been published in such magazines as Relief Journal, Parents Express, Sunday Digest, and Highlights for Children. Joyce attended Bryn Mawr College and is a member of the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Fellowship. She is a frequent workshop leader at various writer’s conferences and women’s church groups. She has three children, Rebekah, Emily, and Adam; one grandson, Lemuel Earnest; one son-in-law, Joshua, and a neurotic parakeet. Joyce leads a small fiction group called StoryCrafters. She enjoys baseball, football, cream soda, and needle arts but not elevators. She currently lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania.

My Impressions:

Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise is the second installment of the Bright’s Pond series by Joyce Magnin.  It can, however, be read as a stand alone. In Charlotte, Magnin takes us to the Paradise Trailer Park located near Bright’s Pond. The characters from The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow (book 1) that show up in this novel, are supportive at best, really remaining on the periphery of the story and action.  Charlotte Figg is a newly widowed woman looking for a new start.  Her old life held some sorrow, pain and secrets she would like to forget. So she buys a trailer sight unseen, loads up her loyal and somewhat psychic dog Lucky and heads for Paradise.  What she finds is a run down doublewide in need of major overhauling and a community in need of some shaking up.  Filled with really quirky characters, Charlotte is laugh out loud funny and sobering in its portrayal of abused women with no where to turn.  Set in 1974, the novel shows what the world was like prior to women’s liberation.  I really liked Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise and am looking forward to returning to the zany world of Bright’s Pond.

Recommended.

(Charlotte Takes Over Paradise came free from Amazon for my Kindle.)

Tags: general fiction, Joyce Magnin