“This first novel by an Oklahoma-born Texan is written with verve, assurance and some salty language.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

Being a motherless woman who likes to drive to “nowhere places” and drop assorted “colorful” words on occasion, I felt myself drawn to Mattie almost immediately. She’s in her 30’s and apparently can’t hold a job, a relationship (who would want to hold onto some of the guys she runs into?), or hold onto money. The only stable relationship she seems to have is with her ex-stepfather. It appears as if he’s the most positive person she’s ever had rooting for her. Even with his input, she always finds ways to make her situations a little worse than when she came to them. My kinda girl!

“I have ninja skills when it comes to screwing things up. It’s like a superpower only lamer.”

She lives in Florida but is pulled to her now-dead mother’s hometown in Oklahoma, forced to face the history her mother would never talk about, and the young woman she once was. All the while, our Mattie is just trying to get through the every day struggles of finding food (or someone to fix dinner for her), a job, a way to pay for her car, and what clothes will fit from her mother’s old wardrobe.

She runs into characters along the way that are just as quirky as her, but in wounded ways -not silly or funny- just real life ways. She is independent, strong, sassy and struggling. She curses, she can be sneaky, but she’s kind hearted, and also a little damaged.

Mattie figures out the ‘mystery’ of why her mother left town, but more importantly, she learns that her mother did her very best in trying to be the mother Mattie needed. Was she a perfect mother? No. But she loved her the only way she knew how.

Reviewed by:

Kerri Foulks

Added 24th January 2016

More Reviews By
Kerri Beany Foulks

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