Quote-Tastic: Bless Her Heart

Southern Fried Blues

The Officers' Ex-Wives Club, #1
Jamie Farrell

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Jamie Farrell
Date of Publication: January 7, 2014
Number of pages: 344
Word Count: 96,890
Cover Artist: Novel Graphic Designs

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN    Kobo     Smashwords

A Yankee Lady Stuck in the South
Divorced wasn’t a label Anna Martin ever wanted. Now she’s a thousand miles from home, underemployed, and lonely, but she’s squeezing this lemon life gave her and turning it into lemon meringue pie. Never again will she let any man—especially another military man—get in the way of her career.

A Southern Gentleman Military Officer
Jackson Davis believes in family, football, and Uncle Sam. He treats ladies right, takes his uniform seriously, and he loves his dog, but he doesn’t reckon he’s built for true love. After all, if a man good as his daddy couldn’t do it right, what chance does Jackson have?

One Undeniable Attraction
These two vulnerable souls are as different as cornbread and ketchup, but they fit together like sweet butter on hot biscuits. Short-term, they’re exactly what the other needs. But when their hearts get involved, they’re both gonna end up with a big ol’ case of Southern Fried Blues.

Anna is meeting Jackson's family for the first time. Louisa is his younger sister, Deb is Jackson's mother and Russ is his step-father. Deb has been being very passive aggressive and Anna has finally had enough.
Quote: 
Louisa got another one of those gleams in her eye. The kind that normal people got when they were about to slip a snowball down their sister’s back in sub-zero temperatures.

The kind that made Anna wonder—again—if she should’ve declined the invitation to come this weekend.

“Momma says marry the first time for love, the second time for money.”Louisa’s face shone with a pompous arrogance she was entirely too young to properly manage.

But, unfortunately, she was entirely rich enough to try anyway, and she was sitting in a chair that probably cost Anna’s monthly salary, and she was implying that Anna was only here because she, too, wanted a chunk of Russ’s wallet.

The thought sparked a fuse Anna hadn’t realized she possessed. Her temper rocketed into the stratosphere as if it were attached to Neil’s iPod and retainer. Anna savored the flight, narrowing in on her target, burning, building to her climax, and smiled sweetly through the flames spewing from her mouth. “Well, bless her heart.”

And then everything exploded in a silent, slow-motion shower of embers, burning out the last bits of her anger as they hit the frosty air, as if she were watching the fireworks from far away and hadn’t heard the boom yet.

Deb’s lip curled. Her breasts rose, shoulders bouncing back. Her hand fluttered to her chest.

Louisa choked on something akin to a laugh-gasp.

Maura’s hand flew to her lips.

Even good ol’General Lee scowled from his perch of honor in a decorative plate on the wall.

Russ’s mustache twitched. He discreetly coughed into a napkin. Bless his heart.
Review: 
I remember marking this book last year as a possible TBR. So I was surprised to see it available on Netgalley now.  But as I do like a good southern romance, especially one with a military hero.  Throw in a Yankee, and you just know there are going to be some funny moments.

The story starts with Anna and her husband Neil at their mutual friends' wedding. As Neil is the only married man in the wedding party, he was asked to give a toast to the happy couple. It's during the toast that he drunkenly rambles on about all of Anna's faults and basically makes an ass out of himself in front of everyone there. When Anna follows him outside after his little bombshell, he drops a bigger one and tells her he has been transferred again, oh and he wants a divorce. I liked Anna a lot. Couldn't help myself. She showed such strength and courage through the story. Plus her little OCD issue and love affair with her label maker made me laugh many times.

Jackson Davis. An actual rocket scientist who plays the dumb redneck card so well. He is constantly after Anna to let him help her. Not because he doesn't think she can't do it, but that he believes a woman shouldn't have to do it all alone. Chivalry is not dead in this one. And while he attributes most of his manners to his momma, it is in actuality his grandmother who is his true influence. His grandmother was a hoot and a half, with her bowling team and words of southern wisdom.

There was so much about this book to like. I laughed and giggled my way through to a 4 star review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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