THE LAST OF THE HONKY-TONK ANGELS

Author: Marsha Moyer ISBN: 0060081643 2003 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: AVON

On a lazy June morning in Mooney -- a wooded patch of sparsely populated northeast Texas -- a shiny red Chrysler sedan pulls up to the home of Lucy Hatch and Ash Farrell, depositing a teenage girl on their doorstep before speeding away. For Ash, town carpenter and musician, the unheralded arrival of the daughter he hasn't seen in nearly eight years is a life-altering shock. It's certain to further complicate Lucy's increasingly complex relationship with Ash as well, now that she has discovered she is pregnant with his child. And angry, rebellious Denny must learn to live with a father she barely knows and the stranger who now shares his life -- in a town far tinier than any that has imprisoned her before -- as they all search for that elusive common bond that will help them become, at last, that most rare and precious thing: a family.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Never having read a Marsha Moyer book before, I was very pleasantly surprised that I was able to open up this book and be swept away to this quaint little corner of the world, with these wonderful people and this wonderful little dysfunctional family.

I know what you are thinking...How can a dysfunctional family be so wonderful? The fact of the matter is this family finding their way to each other is what makes the story so wonderful to the reader. The way that Ash can be downright frustrating, Lucy too stubborn, and poor Denny so confused and yet knowing exactly what she wants, made me, the reader, remember different instances in my own life when I have felt too confused or been too stubborn, or frustrated the heck out of my family!

And that is not to mention the lively, almost tangible atmosphere of the town and the larger-than-life secondary characters, such as Aunt Dove, the Lilac Ladies, and Peggy, that make you just throw your head back and laugh at their funny antics. All around this little town are people that I couldn't get enough of, and I will make sure to go back again and again to reacquaint myself with throughout the years.

Kristal Gorman