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    Mermaids in the Basement
    Unavailable
    Mermaids in the Basement
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    Mermaids in the Basement
    Ebook390 pages6 hours

    Mermaids in the Basement

    By Michael Lee West

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Reeling from the loss of her mother, plagued with a bad case of writer's block (and don't even talk about those extra twenty pounds), Renata DeChavannes feels as though everything is just plain wrong. And that was before the tabloids caught her sweetheart, filmmaker Ferg Lauderdale, sharing an intimate squeeze with Hollywood's hottest young tamale.

    But the granddaughter of the formidable Honora DeChavannes possesses more hell than belle in her backbone—and she's about to reclaim it. Heading south to Honora's home on the Gulf Coast, Renata is determined to stop feeling like a wilted gardenia and emerge as the unstoppable kudzu her beloved grandmother proudly proclaimed she would be. But for that to happen Renata's got to face some not-so-genteel ghosts from her past, discover the truth about the mother she desperately misses, and make peace with the first man who abandoned her and broke her heart: her handsome and distant father.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061834264
    Unavailable
    Mermaids in the Basement
    Author

    Michael Lee West

    Michael Lee West is the author of Mad Girls in Love, Crazy Ladies, American Pie, She Flew the Coop, and Consuming Passions. She lives with her husband on a rural farm in Tennessee with three bratty Yorkshire terriers, a Chinese Crested, assorted donkeys, chickens, sheep, and African Pygmy goats. Her faithful dog Zap (above) was the inspiration for a character in the novel.

    Read more from Michael Lee West

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    Reviews for Mermaids in the Basement

    3.5/5

    122 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A nice, light summer read. It's a two-dayer, so easy and breezy. A little formulaic, but sometimes a reader needs that.
    • 4/5
      Author Michael Lee West is one of the south’s treasures as she’s shown with her previous works set amongst the live oaks and Spanish moss. Mermaids in the Basement is a worthy addition to her funny and convoluted tales of the modern day south and the resilient (and sometimes off-beat) women who live there.No blowsy magnolia blossom, screenwriter Renata is down and depressed by her mother and step-father’s unexpected death in a plane crash several months prior to the opening of the story. She has a distant and superficial relationship with her father, who is about to marry a very young trophy wife. Her writer’s block is flaring up even as the latest deadline on a crap screenplay is due. And to cap it all off, she sees a tabloid showing her boyfriend, a successful director, in a clinch with the latest Hollywood “It girl” on location in Ireland. After an unproductive call to boyfriend Ferg, a few too many drinks, a bonfire, and alcohol-inspired Fed-Exing, all of which turn out to have been Bad Ideas, Renata finds a letter from her mother marked to be read only in case of an emergency. This letter drives Renata’s flight to her paternal grandmother’s home in coastal Alabama to find out the truth behind her parents' life together. Once home, matriarch and grande dame Honora, former nanny Gladys, and long-time family friend and former actress Isabelle conspire to help Renata find the steel in her backbone, share the skeletons in the family closet with her, and show her that her future, while anchored on the past, can be made to suit the person she is becoming.Filled with grand parties, shocking revelations, and more side plots than you can shake a stick at, West has created her trademark eccentric but entirely believable characters and plot. She has a way with the turn of a phrase that sometimes doesn't dawn on the reader until they are a paragraph further on but will still elicit a bark of laughter. This is a snappy, witty, and fun read that sucks you and and doesn't let you go, through both the unconventional, crazy happenings and the more mundane. And it will make you a bit sad you don't have characters like this in your real life, because honey, you know they'd take you for some wild ride. An easy, smooth read, West does tackle some heavier topics than calling this a breezy romantic novel would suggest. And she handles them deftly, not allowing them to destroy the light touch of the whole. This is one I definitely recommend.
    • 3/5
      This was a fast read of a very dysfunctional family. Every layer of discovery by the heroine led to more secrets and another web of misunderstandings and half-truths. If you like the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, this might be for you.
    • 3/5
      Loved this book!! Crazy southern women; great characters!! Would make a great discussion book.
    • 3/5
      After the tabloids post a picture of her fiancee with another woman, Renata DeChavannes heads to her grandmother's home on the Gulf Coast to mend her broken heart. During her stay the story of her parents comes to light. Told in several voices, this book is a jumble of stories of strange, yet uninteresting, people. I loved the cover, I wish what was between the covers was as good.
    • 4/5
      Books about Southern charm & secrets seem to be everywhere. I got a bit bogged down in the details of gucchi handbags and affairs but this was a good read.
    • 5/5
      An excellent read. Renata has just lost her beloved mother and stepfather and finds pictures of her boyfriend in the tabloids with an actress. Renata goes to her grandmother's estate in the gulf shore of alabama --- and learns a lot about her family's history.