The Truth About Roxy
by Jenny Gilliam
published by The Wild Rose Press
I like the longer single-title contemporary romance (no suspense, thanks, and the category lengths are just way too short) and lately, the ones I really like have been coming out of the smaller e-presses. They’re not as well edited as I’d like, but they’re fun reads whose story lines seem to stick with me quite a while.
The Truth About Roxy was a light, fun read that still managed to make me laugh and cry. I’ve read another of this author’s non-suspense novels (Letting Luce) and it was just as light and fun. Even *I*, lover of all alpha heroes monied, adore that Jenny’s characters are normal people like me, with normal-people jobs and normal-people problems.
Here’s the blurb:
Roxy Palmer is a walking, breathing cliché. And darned tired of it. Working as the assistant librarian in her small, Southern home town, Roxy also anonymously pens the local love column, ASK PAULA ROCKWELL–Thorton, Georgia’s answer to Dear Abby. But when the door leading to Roxy’s lifetime dream is slammed in her face by one of the good ol’ boys, Roxy brings out the big guns–and turns the genteel town upside down with her racier, feminist, home-wrecking new format. Paula Rockwell is making Sheriff Noah Kennedy’s life crazy. He’s got angry husbands lined around the block, demanding the cancellation of the column, fights breaking out and women catching their boyfriends’ trucks on fire. If he ever gets his hands on that woman… But he’s got his hands FULL of Roxy at the moment, and if he ever discovers the truth about Roxy, all hell will break loose.
Beefs first:
I thought Noah’s extreme reaction to Roxy’s coming-out (as it were) was too much, because he’d known her all his life and he should’ve understood her better.
And oh, that cover, bless their hearts. [Insert longsuffering sigh here.]
Good stuff:
Again, fun, light romp. The characters were engaging and I believed in the nutjobs and the goofy backwater Southern town because they were drawn so vividly.
I had a really good time with this book, and that’s all I care about.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I second that motion on the cover.
There just aren’t words.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Well, that’s not the author’s fault and I don’t want it to be taken that way.
December 4th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I thought her head was a little big, but it is it REALLY that bad?
The Author
December 4th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Your others are better.
I don’t really like many of the poser covers, so I’ll admit to a bias there.
On the other hand, I see this is the #3 bestseller for Wild Rose Press, so…
December 5th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Oh, I know it’s not the author’s fault.
Also, I’ve noticed that most of the Wild Rose Press covers aren’t very attractive. Samhain and Ellora’s Cave and Loose ID don’t always hit it out of the ballpark on covers, but they have a lot more covers that don’t suck.
I’ve talked to some of the cover artists they use, and most of them, even the really talented ones don’t charge THAT much. One wonders why WRP doesn’t call up Ann Caine (spelling? the E may be on the end of her first and not her last name, I get mixed up on it), or April Martinez.
Both Ann and April do fantastic work.