Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Dear Ms. Cumbie and Ms. McClanahan,

Your first book was a delight, second I haven’t read, third was a disappointment and fourth I almost didn’t read. Ha. Let that be a lesson to me. From the blurb, I knew that this would be more comedy and mystery than romance and in the last book I had decried the lack of Buddy Overstreet and Vic Martin. I also realized that I’d probably be in for lots of culture clashes between the good ole girls from west Texas and the people of New York City. Both of these didn’t thrill me. But by gum you pulled it off and had me laughing even as the management of the Anson hotel whimpered at the damage unleashed in the wake of Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin - hair dressers extraordinaire and PIs still in training.

If “Shoes” had only been an ‘us vs them’ treatment of the differences between small town west Texans and brash Yankees, I’d have gotten tired of it pretty quickly. But I love the way you two have everyone pretty much end up laughing with each …

Ladies,

This is the second book I’ve read in your series set in the minuscule west Texas town of Salt Lick featuring the dynamic duo of hair stylists Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin. And while I still love all the titles of the books, this one fell far short of book one in the series, “Since You’re Leaving Anyway, Take Out the Trash.” I wish more time had been spent with Debbie Sue and Edwina, that their husbands had had more than cameo appearances and that the humor didn’t seem quite so forced.

There isn’t much to do in Salt Lick, Texas so everyone minds everybody else’s business. And since the setting is Texas, the hair dressing shop of Debbie Sue and Edwina is central to a lot of the town action. These two are still the good ol’ gals I remember but as their love lives are in good shape, you’ve moved the romantic action to a newcomer to town, Allison Barker.

She’s sweet and kind and a good mother and dutiful daughter but she doesn’t have the “kick” that either Debbie Sue or Edwina have. The humor in her scenes mainly …