DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN YOU AND MY SHOES

Author: Dixie Cash ISBN: 9780060829742 6/2008 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: AVON

New York City is miles from Salt Lick, Texas, in more ways than one, but Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin are rarin' to go. The best friends/beauty shop owners/private-eye partners have been offered an all-expense-paid trip to the National Association of Private Investigators convention in the Big Apple. Debbie Sue sees the invitation as validation, but Edwina has one goal: to get her feet into a pair of super-glam designer shoes, not easily had back home. Yee-haw! As a sign of things to come, the two Texas tornadoes don't even get out of the state without causing pandemonium at the Dallas airport. And once they land in the Big City they meet Celina, a small-town librarian who's broke and bereft from getting robbed, and Cher, an amiable "working girl" with a heart of gold. Taking them under their wings, they head right for trouble as Edwina nearly starts a riot in the hotel bar. But the Big Apple hasn't seen nothin' yet! While helping shy Celina hook up with a hunky young police detective, the Domestic Equalizers bumble their way into a murder investigation that could end up leaving Debbie Sue deceased and Edwina stone-cold in her new Jimmy Choos!

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN YOU AND MY SHOES has made my All-time Favorite Books list! Dixie Cash made me laugh so hard, I wondered if I'd broken a rib! Perfect timing, to-die-for characters and the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary makes Dixie Cash's DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN YOU AND MY SHOES a story that deserves to be read over and over again.

Two friends from a teeny-tiny town in Texas head to the Big Apple to speak at a private investigator's convention. From the beginning, it's a tale of Green Acres meets Sex and the City—but with a twist. The hilarity begins long before the pair reaches New York. I've got to admit that the scene where the girls try and board the plane is so flat-out funny, I had to stop—and laugh!—several times before I actually made it to the end of the chapter. I could see and hear it all, and I laughed so hard my husband came and asked if I was all right. I couldn't answer him—I was laughing too hard to speak!

While Dixie Cash's characters are such a strong point it makes it hard to discuss anything else about the book, there is more. Much more. The plot is fast-moving, interesting and well written. A vindictive murderer is loose at the convention, and the young, never-been-anywhere librarian (also a Texas gal!) the two friends take under their collective wing, is in jeopardy of becoming a victim. Of course the librarian, Celina, meets a man, but Debbie Sue and Edwina are there to make sure the man is good enough for Celina. I like this about the women: they genuinely care about people, and it shows.

Dixie Cash is a writing team, two sisters, who know how to bring words off the page and into a reader's heart and mind. It's rare that I love a book as much as I did this one. I plan to head out the next chance I get and buy Dixie Cash's three other titles. Only next time I read anything by these sisters, I'll know in advance that I'm going to laugh until I cry!

Dixie Cash's  humor, down-home characters and quirky plotting make DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN YOU AND MY SHOES an easy award choice to make!

Kay James