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    The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell: A Novel
    Ebook381 pages6 hours

    The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell: A Novel

    By Loraine Despres

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Belle Cantrell felt guilty about killing her husband and she hated that. Feeling guilty, that is. A lady shouldn't do something she's going to feel guilty about later, was a rule Belle kept firmly in mind.

    So begins The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell, a story of murder, adultery, and regular church attendance, which introduces Belle Cantrell as a beautiful young widow with a rebellious streak, years before she will become grandmother to Sissy LeBlanc, the feisty main character of Loraine Despres's bestselling The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc.

    The year is 1920, prohibition is in full swing, women are clamoring for the vote, and a narrow-minded intolerance is on the rise. Life isn't easy for an unmarried woman, not in a little town like Gentry, Louisiana, especially after she's sent to jail for swimming in an indecent bathing costume with a group of suffragists.

    It's not as if Belle doesn't know how to behave. She knows the rules. She keeps the Primer of Propriety firmly in mind. But sometimes -- most of the time -- she has to twist the rules a little, or break them, or give them a permanent kink, because they all say the same thing: "Don't."

    And a girl has got to live.

    After a year and a half of mourning, Belle decides to get on with her life and kicks off a season of tumult that will change her and Gentry forever.

    Sexy, sassy, with laugh-out-loud humor and a cast of zany characters you won't forget, The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell is a big comic love story and a page-turner. But it delves deeper, as Belle struggles to find her moral center and stand up to forces that are determined to destroy the soul of a town and the people she loves.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061866517
    Unavailable
    The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell: A Novel
    Author

    Loraine Despres

    Loraine Despres is the author of the bestselling novel The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc and its tie-in title, The Southern Belle's Handbook. Raised in Amite, Louisiana, Despres is a former television writer and international screenwriting consultant. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and continues to enjoy bad behavior.

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    Reviews for The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell

    4.5/5

    3 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Good book! Love the southern, as I am one. Hate the prejudice content, but that was the times unfortunately. Very good read.
    • 5/5
      The first line of this book hooked me-Belle Cantrell felt guilty about killing her husband and she hated that. Feeling guilty, that is. A lady shouldn't do something she's going to feel guilty about later, was a rule Belle kept firmly in mind.And so begins your introduction to Belle Cantrell's Southern Woman's Primmer of Propriety which Belle teacches but doesn't always follow.It is set in the 1920's with prohibition in full swing and women are fighting for their right to vote.Its about a young widow living in the south and her struggle between independence and southern propriety.This book is very well written and will make you giggle! This is one of my favorites and am soo sad to see i am the only one with this in my collection!Find this book and Enjoy it!
    • 4/5
      I purchased The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell when I was in Texas in May. I thought it looked like a good summer chick-lit read. I finally got around to reading it this week and was surprised to find that it was more than just chick-lit. There was an amazing message that even in today’s world needs to be remembered.Bad Behavior is a period piece set in Louisiana in 1920. Prohibition was at its height, women had just been given the right to vote, and the Klu Klux Klan was starting to take hold of not only the South, but also the entire country. In the middle of all this is born-before-her-time Belle Cantrell. A recent widow and new part owner of the largest farm in Gentry, Louisiana, Belle is a huge advocate of the woman suffrage cause and is not afraid to speak her mind on most topics; much to the dismay of the Southern Genteel folk.While the book is fun and sassy and, at times, down right sexy, it also reminds you of how intolerance was widely accepted in our country and that speaking out against said intolerance caused people to fear for their lives to the point to where many just kept quiet. “It’s not our fight,” was just one of the responses Belle received while trying to help stop an attack on her friend. With some of the same intolerances seeping into our society today, this book struck quite a chord with me. And all while reading it, my favorite Martin Luther King Jr. quote replayed in the back of my mind. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”