Happy Friday! I attended a small literary festival last weekend and met some wonderful authors. One was Kay Dew Shostak, author of several small town series. I love a book set in a small town, and one set in one of my favorite places, the north Georgia mountains, was irresistible. I purchased the first book, Next Stop, Chancey. I’m looking forward to some fun reading. 🙂
Here’s the first line:
So how did I get stuck driving with my daughter, the princess, during one of her moods?
Looking in your teenage daughter’s purse is never a good idea.
After all, it ended up with Carolina Jessup opening a Bed & Breakfast for railroad fanatics in a tiny Georgia Mountain town. Carolina knows all about, and hates, small towns. How did she end up leaving her wonderful Atlanta suburbs behind while making her husband’s dreams come true?
The town bully (who wears a lavender skirt and white gloves), an endless parade of teenagers through her house, and everybody talking about a ghost have Carolina looking for an escape, or at least a way to move back home. Instead, she’s front and center for all of Chancey’s small town gossip.
Unlike back home in the suburbs with privacy fences and automatic garage doors, everybody in Chancey thinks your business is their business and they all love the newest Chancey business. The B&B hosts a Senate candidate, a tea for the County Fair Beauty contestants, and railroad nuts who sit out by the tracks and record the sound of a train going by. Yet, nobody believes Carolina prefers the ‘burbs.
Oh, yeah, and if you just ignore a ghost, will it go away?
After being raised in a small-town in Tennessee, Kay Dew Shostak lived around the country in a variety of settings. Taking a look at the familiar and loved from new perspectives led Kay to see, and then write about, the absurd, the beautiful, and the funny in her South.
After publishing several stories in compilation books and spending a few years in journalism, Kay wandered into writing fiction and found it hard to leave. She currently is working on the fourth book in the Chancey series and living in Fernandina Beach, Florida with her husband.
That is a very good first line, Beckie. Have a wonderful weekend 😊
It sounds good, I will be interested to hear your thoughts after you finish it. I hope you enjoy it!!
I have read all Kay’s books. I have enjoyed visiting the Jessup’s and all the people who populate Chancey. I can’t wait for Jewel’s next adventure on Sophia Island in Kay’s mystery series. You won’t be disappointed spending a little time in Kay’s small town world.
I think many of us have secretly wanted to run a B&B, so it might be fun to read this one.
Happy Friday!
I’m currently reading The Metropolitan Affair by Jocelyn Green. It’s really good!
“In some ways, Ivy and Elsa were two peas in a pod.”
I hope you have a great weekend!