Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book for review from Goddess Fish Promotions and the author. I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising".
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BLURB:
Disc jockey Joy Faye Savoy plays country songs written about women like her mother, the comely, exasperating Quida Raye Perkins. When Joy treats her audience to good-natured gripes about her big-haired and bossy mother, who's known to hitch rides in semi trucks, she is shocked to find herself syndicated … with one catch—she must keep poking fun at feisty Quida Raye.
Joy makes the best of small-town stardom despite big-time baggage, a load not lightened by hunky co-workers or her overbearing best friend until true love strikes. Meanwhile, Joy finally hears in those old melodies what she and her mother have had in common all along—yesterday, with its shared memories of happiness and tragedy. And they know all the words by heart.
Mama Tried is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, KOBO, Scribd and other fine retailers.
Amazon – OneLink for every country
AppleBooks/iTunes The Book Depository Blackwell’s
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Joy Faye Savoy gives the reader a look into her mother’s life. But we see how much her life interweaves with that of her mother’s. It may even have you thinking about your own relationship with your parent(s).
Hers is a life that country songs are made of. Listening to some of the older tunes are just a suggestion. Some big names to check out are Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard – just to name a few. Didn’t feel that the new country artists would fit the feel of this story. A disc jockey that comes to mind was Bobby Bones. He could become a distraction because he talks a lot – or at least he used to when I listened to him.
Back in the good ole days, my town had its own radio station and over time it has gotten away from music and now it’s all about the talk. Joy was someone that I could connect with because I had similar things going on with my own mother. Granted, my mother wasn’t as colorful but there were certain things she did that had me thinking of my own.
The highlights were the funny stories that would connect Joy with her audience. But there were times where scenes seemed to either go on too long or fell flat after something that should have been funny. I got the impression that this story was supposed to be lighthearted but at times I only got confused. I couldn’t make any connections with her time in the booth and her camaraderie with her coworkers or her personal life – it was like her mother should have been a whole separate one. My mind just could not connect to what was going on – maybe too many nested stories.
I would have loved to play music in the background, as I was reading the story, but this was taking all of my concentration. Adding in music would have been too much of a distraction and then I probably would have been more confused than I already was. This is the author’s first book, that I can see, so I would be interested in trying her next. I’m not ready to give up - I always believe in second chances.
EXCERPT:
Joy couldn’t wait till Paul saw their place, a wonderland in yellow, beige, and brown, clunky with color-coordinated yard bric-a-brac and aswarm with pets—several dogs, assorted ducks. Joy even had a horse, though he was pastured five miles away. In other words, Paul was about to behold what every cent and all the credit an occasionally contrite if genetically combative E-Seven could scrape together.
“But when we pulled up to Joy’s place…” Boo- Boo began.
“Something was missing,” she said.
“There was the fence, the dogs, the ostriches, and so forth,” Boo-Boo said.
“They were ducks,” Joy told WildDog. Boo-Boo hunched his shoulders and shook his head, as if ducks made any more sense than ostriches.
“Anyway,” she continued, “in addition to the ducks, there was the cinderblock storage shed, freshly painted yellow and brown to match the brown fence posts and yellow bird bath.”
“I think there were even some yellow plastic flamingos still standing in the yard,” Boo-Boo recalled.
“Yellow?” WildDog wrinkled his forehead.
“My mother thought pink clashed with her yellow-and- brown color scheme,” Joy explained, as if that made sense.
“Everything was just the way it used to be,” Boo-Boo said.
“Except for one thing,” Joy noted, memory flitting once more across the unsettling what’s-different-about-this-picture sensation that gripped her as Boo-Boo pulled up to the driveway, Paul idling behind them. After studying the scene a few seconds and adjusting her depth perception by several degrees, it finally hit her. That wasn’t her trailer she was looking at. It was
the one parked behind her trailer.
“Her trailer was gone,” Boo-Boo said.
“Gone?” WildDog exclaimed.
“Poof,” Joy replied. “If you can imagine anything fourteen feet wide and seventy-two feet long
disappearing into thin air.”
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Author Bio:
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Kathy Des Jardins owns a publications firm in metro Atlanta and is a member of the Atlanta Writers Club and Roswell Reads. A former newspaper reporter, columnist, and editor, she won her first journalism award for a country concert review. During the next decade, another category would dominate her nearly 100 national, regional, and state awards: humor writing. In addition to winning two Louisiana Press Association’s Best Regular Columnist Awards, four Louisiana Press Women Sweepstakes Awards, and a first for humor articles from the National Federation of Press Women, she was honored by the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Newspaper Contests and United Press International Newspapers of Louisiana, among other organizations. She has also received California Press Women’s Outstanding Excellence Award and USTA Georgia’s Media Excellence Award. Mama Tried, her first novel, revisits her two earliest, and most winning, themes: tragicomedy set to classic country music.
In addition to appearing in O, Georgia! A Collection of Georgia’s Newest and Most Promising Writers, she has written for several national and regional publications. Beginning in 2015, she also penned a book column for a monthly Atlanta magazine. Kathy claims dual citizenship, having been born in Kentucky and raised in Louisiana, where she fleetingly attended Louisiana State University-Alexandria and Louisiana College. She and her husband live in Johns Creek, Georgia, and have three sons. http://kathydesjardins.com.
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GIVEAWAY:
Kathy Des Jardins will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your release of Mama Tried, Kathy, great excerpt, I enjoyed following the tour and learning about your book, which sounds like a fantastic read! Good luck with your book and I hope the tour was a success! Thanks for sharing it with me! Thanks, Lynn, for sharing your review! Have an awesome day!
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