Slightly South of Simple - Review

Slightly South of Simple

by Kristy Woodson Harvey

400 pages

Release date 4/25/2017

5 out of 5 stars

According to the publisher, “Caroline Murphy swore she’d never set foot back in the small Southern town of Peachtree Bluff; she was a New York girl born and bred and the worst day of her life was when, in the wake of her father’s death, her mother selfishly forced her to move—during her senior year of high school, no less—back to that hick-infested rat trap where she'd spent her childhood summers. But now that her marriage to a New York high society heir has fallen apart in a very public, very embarrassing fashion, a pregnant Caroline decides to escape the gossipmongers with her nine-year-old daughter and head home to her mother, Ansley.

Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.

Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.”

Slightly South of Simple is the first book in what is so far a three book series, with the most recent book having just been released this past May.  I chose to start this series, because I kept seeing the newest book everywhere, and the cover was just so fun that I knew I had to give it a try this summer!

This book has everything I want from a summer read:  humor, drama, and romance, all set in a beach-y location.  All of this is served up by a lovely cast of mostly female characters, who are all well-defined and have their own distinct personalities.  I truly commend the author for this;  I find quite often that some writers, when using a large number of same-gendered characters, struggle to make each character distinct enough that the reader can keep everyone straight.  By the end of this book, I felt like I knew Ansley and her three daughters, and what motivated each of them individually, even though this book is only told through the perspectives of Ansley and her oldest daughter, Caroline, without giving us direct insight from the two younger sisters.

At 400 pages, this book is a little lengthy, but at no point in time did the story slow down or did I feel like the writing was becoming superfluous.  I actually sped through this book, reading it in less than three days, because I was just so involved in the story.  

While this is not the deepest book, it is so fun and easy to read that I had to give it five stars!  I am already looking forward to reading the next book in the series, and I highly recommend you read it as well!