I was grateful to have received Lookin' Back Texas by Leanna Ellis from the Early Reviewer program at Library Thing. From the back of the book:
Betty Lynne Davidson is planning her husband’s funeral while overlooking one thing: he’s not dead.
When Suzanne Mullins, forty-two, gets the call from her father to come back home to Texas because her mother has gone off the deep end, she knows it will mean having to look at the faulty foundations of their marriage as well as her own. Betty Lynne has always upheld a perfect facade of home and family, and Suzanne has followed suit. But her life with husband Mike and son Oliver is cracking under the pressure of its own unspoken history.
Looking her past in the eye once and for all, Suzanne hopes that trusting in God’s love and mercy will set all of this craziness straight—even if it does mean having to watch her father give the eulogy at his own funeral.
My thoughts and reaction to this book are varied. I felt some of the situations were very contrived and did not feel remotely real. But some - including the non-dead husband's funeral planning - were quite funny and I could easily imagine it. The writing style took a while to get used to, but eventually I was able to lose myself in the book.
The main characters - Suzanne, her mother Betty and her husband Mike - were fairly well developed. I did get involved in their lives and got emotional a few times for them. However some of the other characters and their reactions left me feeling like I was missing a big part of their personality, they were very flat when they could have been quite colorful.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think it was a good story and am glad I got a chance to read it.
Check out the book's website for an interview with author Leanna Ellis.
You can find other reviews on Lookin' Back, Texas:
Brittanie at A Book Lover.
Allison at On My Bookshelf.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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