"Assuring both him and myself that I was always careful, especially when there was a possibility that someone's feelings could be hurt, I went to bed feeling energized. I'd told Lilian that I had a great urge to fix something, and what better project could I take on than a young woman who badly needed fixing?" -Miss Julia, from the novel
After reading a few challenging books lately, I breezed through this one---such an easy and entertaining read! I believe I have read all 20 of the novels in the Miss Julia series and this one is number 21. I have loved them all.
Miss Julia is a delightful lady likely close to my age with whom I have a number of things in common. She lives in a small town in North Carolina and pretty much knows everyone and everything that's going on or if she doesn't she makes it her business to find out. Many of the characters are so familiar, they feel like friends and family to me!
The quote I began with hints at the plot of the novel. When an unknown doctor comes to town to stand in for the beloved Dr. Hargrove while he is on a long-awaited vacation, Julia invites him and his wife for dinner, only to begin wondering how she can help (or fix?) the doctor's enigmatic wife, Lauren Crawford. Mix in grandson Lloyd's driving lessons, a real estate project, and a dear friend's husband's heart attack and you have more than enough for a lively plot. And then suspicions start to build around both Crawfords.
Ms. Ross's humor is my favorite thing about her books. For example, in trying to understand her grandson Lloyd, Julia says, "Teenagers, after all, tend to see things in black and white: This is right; that is wrong. Yet as we age, hair is not the only thing that begins to fade into gray areas, and we find reasons and excuses for activities that we would have once condemned. 'Thou shalt not' turns into 'Under certain circumstances, maybe thou canst.'"
And in describing a certain woman she says, "My stars, her clothes and her makeup! Not enough of one and too much of the other."
Julia compares new roofs on run-down houses to "fancy hats on bag ladies."
Many, many smiles and laughs in reading Miss Julia adventures. This one gets a 5 rating for sheer enjoyment!
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