Date
published: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1528-5
Romantic
Fiction
Paperback
Reviewed
by Lynne
Obtained
via publisher
In
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where women are strong and beautiful, are THE SASSY
BELLES, Vivi, Rhonda, and Blake.
Having established this exclusive sisterhood back in junior high, these
Southern Belles vowed to guard each other’s backs forever, no matter what. They deemed themselves as “Southern Belles
with an attitude and a splash of fun.”
Then, although Rhonda moved away in tenth grade, Vivi and Blake always
remained THE SASSY BELLES, the closest of friends. Family.
Blake
O’Hara Heart is now an attorney whose husband and law partner, Harry, is
aspiring to move into the political realm.
Vivi
Ann McFadden, an only child, lives alone on a beautiful plantation with her
former nanny, Corabelle, and Arthur, the gardener. She is romantically involved with Harry
Heart’s brother, Lewis, a popular football announcer, who, during a playful
romp at a local motel, suddenly winds up dead, with Vivi being the only
suspect. Frightened, who else would Vivi
call for help but her best friend, Blake, a good attorney who always fights for
the underdog?
As
the Tuscaloosa gossip swirls around them, THE SASSY BELLES are
determined to find out the truth about Lewis’s disappearance and clear Vivi’s
reputation.
THE
SASSY BELLES by Beth Albright, a Tuscaloosa native
and former Days of Our Lives actress, among other things, is a fast-paced,
delightful read. Vibrant in its
portrayal of southern life, THE SASSY BELLES is well written and just
plain fun.
THE
SASSY BELLES has all one would want in a good
book: tight-knit relationships,
betrayals, mystery, suspense, humor, and good will, with a bit of adventurous
romance thrown in for good measure.
Vivi
and Blake are two wonderfully close friends who accept each other for who they
are, regardless of their faults or mistakes.
It is so easy to relate to them.
It is also easy to relate to the everyday problems experienced between
couples like Blake and Harry. Harry at
first seems like a good guy, until his strong political interests get in the way
of his marriage.
Vivi
is a character who makes the reader laugh, yet still love her, despite her
kinky side. Blake, the sensible one it
seems, is a strong character who is quick to stand with Vivi and help her as
they try to clear her name. Because Vivi
is so in love with Lewis, it is easy to feel her pain at losing him. It is clear in THE SASSY BELLES just
how strong the loyalties are between Vivi and Blake.
The
male characters in THE SASSY BELLES are all strong men, but it is only
when Harry does something unexpected and hurtful that the reader learns his
true nature. Right from the beginning I
favored Blake’s former heartthrob, Sonny Bartholomew, and with good reason, as THE
SASSY BELLES reveals later.
All
of the characters in THE SASSY BELLES added a lot to this story. The tight-knit family relationships, the
deep-rooted caring for one another, smacked of Southern charm that just warms
the heart.
Albright
is clearly a multi-talented writer who has done a wonderful job in sharing a
love for Tuscaloosa through THE SASSY BELLES. It is indeed full of sass and a variety of
plot lines that keep the reader interested and glued to their seat to see how
everything comes out in the end. In many
ways a humorous, yet fun story, THE SASSY BELLES is the perfect summer
getaway read. I greatly enjoyed reading
it and look forward to Albright’s future work in this series: WEDDING BELLES (coming July, 2013) and
SLEIGH BELLES (September 2013).
This
is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.
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