Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009

Book Review: Girls In Trucks by Katie Crouch

Author:       Katie Crouch

Publisher:    Back Bay Books/Hachette

ISBN:          978-0-316-00212-7

Website:      http://www.katiecrouch.com/

Type:         Fiction:General

Pages:        241 Trade Paperback

Purchase:    $10.97 @ Amazon.com (HERE)

The Story

“Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don’t do. (Like ride with boys in pickup trucks.)  But Sarah can’t quite ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she decamps South Carolina for a life in New York City. There, she and her fellow displaced Southern friends try to make sense of city sophistication, to understand how much of their training applies to real life, and how much to the strange and rarefied world they’ve left behind.

When life’s complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront with matured eyes the motto “Once a Camellia, always a Camellia”- and to see how much fuller life can be, for good and for ill, among those who know you best.”

(Above excerpt is from the www.hachette.com)

The Review

I fell in love with the cover.

Then, I saw the video clip (above).

I just KNEW that I wanted to read this book. 

I entered EVERY giveaway contest. 

I didn’t win a copy.

Then, I spotted one last giveaway.  ENTER ENTER ENTER!

I won!

April at Cafe of Dreams is now officially my hero!

I waited, rather impatiently, for the book to arrive.  I wanted to read it realllllly bad!

Check the mailbox… not here yet. 

Check it again… still not here.

Then, one day, it arrived!  (“aaaaaahhhhhh……” as the skies are shining and the birds are singing…)

I was in the midst of a book the day that it landed on my doorstep.  But, Girls in Trucks was zooming all the way to the top of the pile.  It was going to be read next and it was getting preferential treatment.  

So, I read it.  It took me only a day.  Let me tell you why I liked it…

• It wasn’t a “heavy” book.  It had plenty of substance and story, but it wasn’t that dark, heavy, deep read that sucks your brain out.
• The cover makes me happy.  I just love that dress, her hair, the bare feet.  Yes, I just love that cover.
• I could relate to Sarah Walters.  Even though I’m not from the South, nor do I live in the North, I just get Sarah.  I understand her needing real depth in her relationships and I just “get her” when it comes to her decisions.  Although, I would have left Max much earlier than she did!
• I got my dose of Sarah’s friendships and reading about her diverse relationships.
• I was reminded about how important the kiss is in finding true love.

I need books like this in the midst of my reading list.  Some times books just weigh to heavily on my mind.  This one didn’t.  Reading this book was, for me, like seeing that movie that I’ve been looking forward to.  It just fit.

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

I’ve already purchased and given away a copy to a girlfriend.  Therefore, not only have I recommended it,  but I’ve also passed it along.  But, I think that I just have an affinity with this story… I wanted to like it and I did.  It’s not comparable to some of the profound, intricate books that I’ve read this year.  But, it’s just what the doctor ordered for me!  And, since I get to put my opinion… I will rate this, in the genre: Fiction, a 9 OUT OF 10.  It’s a great summer read and I wanted to drink a mint julep, run barefoot through the grass, and wear a pretty dress. 

My heartfelt thanks to April at Cafe of Dreams and Valorie at Hachette for this summer escape.

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