Divorcing Dwayne
by J. L. Miles
Published by Cumberland House
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
Get ready for a brand new genre…Grits-Lit! At least that is what J. L. Miles (“a northern girl with a southern heart’) is calling her new Dwayne Series. The first in a trilogy, Divorcing Dwayne has “Southern Sass” a’plenty.
Francine Harper is a true Southern girl: size forty hips, a pure heart, pure spirit, and lots and lots of southern slang that is fresh and sparkling.
It seems that Francine has a load of trouble a brewi’. That no-good husband of hers is catting around down at the Peel-n-Squeal with his ex-lover Carla. Even worse, he brings his raggedy self and that tramp Carla into Francine’s bed, where she catches the two of them doing the dirty. And to make matters worse, Carla is not only hunkering down with Francine’s dude, she’s changed the sleep-number on her side of the bed!
Francine snaps, grabs the revolver, and takes three shots at the naked bodies floundering on the sheets. It’s a good thing for Dwayne and Carla that Francine can’t hit a barn door two feet in front her. The bullets lodge into the headboard that Francine’s daddy carved for her and Dwayne as a wedding present.
Told in first person, Francine winds up in jail for shooting at Dwayne and Carla, but that’s just the beginning of her problems. She and her best friend Ray Anne Pickles use a Cyber Spy to eavesdrop on the district attorney Warren Wilson as he plans to frame local mob boss, Joe Bob Banana.
Divorcing Dwayne has more plot twists and sub-plots than a pig trail going down a mountain. It’s convoluted, yet Miles does a remarkable job in keeping it all straight and easy to follow.
When I first started reading Divorcing Dwayne, I thought I would be turned off by the southern stereotyping of Francine and her friends, especially her granny, Nanny Lou..but before I could say “bust my britches,” Francine had wiggled her way into my heart and stayed there until she rode off into the sunset in the back of a movie producer’s limo. Like I said, it’s complicated.
Armchair Interviews says: What a hoot this read is!
Author’s Web site: http://JLMiles.Brinkster.net