What was this lunacy I just read? This book was obviously fairly modern since Dora the Explorer was mentioned but other than that I would have thought this maybe took place in the 1910s or 1920s. The heroine had a car but was amazed that the hero had electricity. She talked like a girl from back in the hills in the 1800s. She called his penis a tallywhacker. All of her vocabulary was just as looney. Basically she was looking for somewhere to live with her whole family and decided on him. She basically just moved into his house with her brother and sister and wouldn't leave. He was hopeless against her. She sent off for the rest of her family and then hopped into bed with him and basically forced him to have sex with her. He was so beta that he just went along with it and fell in love with her. But I think he gave up and let her steamroller him and pretended it was love.

Whackadoodle. But still readable and it went pretty fast so I guess I'm not sorry I read it. ( )

I really tried to like it. I pushed through the whole book but to be fair the rare times I enjoyed it were not enough for me to put more than one star... ( )

I loved this book. I want Phoebe to be my friend as well as Gage and the rest of the Hawleys.
This is not the type of book I usually read and I approached it with some skepticism but it was terrific. Phoebe is all guts and gumption, taking care of her siblings and everyone else around her. She falls in love with Gage and makes him fall in love with her despite himself and the bad experience of his first marriage.
I highly recommend this book. I was given a copy for a honest review. ( )

Twenty four year old Phoebe Hawley has come to the Gulf Coast town of Bayou Le Batre with her younger twelve year old sister and five year old brother, looking for work and a home, when she gets into a fender bender accident with widower Gage Morgan, a junkyard owner with a young nine year old daughter. When Gage takes her bumper and license plate to assure she covers the cost of the damages in the accident, Phoebe wrangles her way into his home determined to prove her Hawley pride and grit. There is very little plot and the ending is exactly what readers of this type of backwoods romance and family drama want; however, this story finds its strength in the characterizations of two individuals searching for respect and security for themselves, while trying to overcome the physical and emotional road bumps in their past, blend in the responsibilities of family and parenthood, and deal with the romantic attractions that begin to well up within for each other. The novel is well written and edited, although I cannot claim to be an expert on Louisiana Cajun swamp diction. There are some sex scenes, but they fit within the path of two souls who clash, banter, hold back and then begin to mesh over the course of a few weeks in their lives. ( )