REVIEW: Peachy Flippin’ Keen by Molly Harper
A prank war erupts in Lake Sackett, Georgia and coroner Frankie McCready has to turn to the gorgeous but surly new sheriff for help in Molly Harper’s newest Southern Eclectic novella, perfect for fans of Kristan Higgins and Amy E. Reichert.
The McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop has crickets running rampant in the store and hot sauce in the Snack Shack’s ketchup bottles. But as the county coroner, Frankie has enough on her plate without worrying about the increasingly mean pranks being played at her family’s business. And the arrival of Sheriff Eric Linden, both devastatingly attractive and painfully taciturn, is enough to push her over the edge.
Linden, who didn’t seem to get the memo about men in uniform and Southern charm, is condescending and cold, revealing absolutely nothing about his past as an Atlanta police officer, while also making Frankie’s job as coroner as difficult as possible. And with the town’s Fourth of July celebration coming up, it’s essential for McCready’s to be cricket-free and in good working order. Strangling the sheriff will make her job even harder. Can Frankie hold off the threats to preserve her own sanity?
Dear Ms. Harper,
I think that I actually squealed when I saw the next book in your Southern Eclectic series was going to be out soon. And it would feature a character I fell in love with from the first novella – Frankie McCready, the sass mouthed, blue haired (yay, the cover has this!) county coroner. My smile dimmed a bit when I realized this is a novella but widened again when I saw that this is only the start of her relationship with the new sheriff in town – Frankie deserves lots of time and attention.
Yes, there really is a new sheriff in town. But he and Frankie have met before. When they next encounter each other, it’s not in Atlanta, at a bar with an evening that proceeded to Eric’s packed box filled apartment and ended after a night of mutual pleasure with Frankie slipping out without a “thanks for the naked memories.” Frankie is irritated by Eric’s pissy attitude towards her one-night stand procedure but his comment that he is a person with feelings who might not enjoy being treated that way seems to slip by her. However she does call him on any attempts at slut-shaming her and won’t apologize for having a healthy sexual appetite. Yeah, the meet-again cute doesn’t go well.
Frankie’s lived among her many relatives in the tourist town of Lake Sackett, GA all her life and knows it can be hard for newcomers to settle in but Eric’s determined lack of interaction with her or for that part most of the town doesn’t bode well. They’re usually laid back there so a stone-face wearing aviator glasses isn’t going to ease into the social fabric of the community. Frankie’s mother might think it’s because Eric is a lost lamb without a mother “to shove deep fried nutrition down his throat” but Frankie knows better.
Still she can set all this aside and be a professional when they’re required to work together on a drowning case. The other issue the McCready’s are facing – the malicious pranks that haven’t escalated to actual crimes yet – the family might have to deal with themselves.
So this novella concentrates on the après hot sex yet before the “obvious relationship to come” gets started. There is a hint of what Eric is thinking but mostly it’s Frankie’s POV and she’s not a woman to hold back her thoughts. As she tells one of her uncles – “I’m. A. Livin’. Delight.”
But it’s her cousin who nails it – Marianne snorted. “My point is that maybe someone who challenges you, instead of shrinking away from that considerable willful streak of yours, would be harder for you to just toss aside.”
Yep, I think round two in their romance will begin shortly. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy Frankie’s smart sass. B
~Jayne
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