Review + Giveaway - Welcome to Last Chance by Hope Ramsay

TITLE:    Welcome to Last Chance
AUTHOR:    Hope Ramsay
INFO:    Paperback, Fiction, 332 pages
PUBLISHED:  Forever, 2011
SOURCE:   Received from Hachette for Review and Blog Tour
 

FROM GOODREADS:  Dear Reader,

Yes, our town is way off the beaten path, but strange, wonderful miracles happen a lot around here.


I've owned the Cut 'n' Curl beauty shop for years, and I've seen folks come for a visit, then stay for a lifetime. Take Jane-that pretty firecracker of a girl who just arrived in town. I would swear she's running from something. She came with only five dollars in her pocket but she's worked real hard to make a fresh start. She's turned my son Clay's life upside down without even realizing it.


And thank goodness for that! Ever since Clay left his country western band, he's played everything too safe. He needs to take a chance on Jane. Besides, the more he tries to keep his distance, the more he'll realize that he and Jane are singing the same tune.


But I should quit ramblin' and go check on Millie's permanent wave. Next time you're in Last Chance, be sure to swing by. We've got hot rollers, free coffee, and the best gossip in town.


See you real soon,
Ruby Rhodes

MY TAKE:    I seem to have hit the jackpot with FUN books in the last couple of weeks.  This one was a lovely addition to that list.  There are a lot of adjectives I can think of when it comes to this book:  endearing, heart-warming, humorous, quirky, page-turning, etc. 

Last Chance, South Carolina sounds like a town many of us would like to be from and/or headed to.  I love small town life and could not imagine living in a big city.  Reading this book as well as the earlier guest post from author Hope Ramsay, you can understand the appeal that small towns still have in today's overly technological and fast-paced world.  They are still all about the people who live there.

Hope Ramsay's main characters are the kind of people we would want in our own lives.  Jane is running away from her past and unknowingly running straight to what she needs most - Clay.  Clay is also running away while at the same time running back home.  They both fight what everyone else has already figured out - they're made for each other.  Just ask Clay's mother Ruby, she'll tell ya!

Out of 5 JEWELS, I give it:

 

WHERE TO BUY IT:    Amazon, The Book Depository

Hope Ramsay's next installment Home at Last Chance will be out in September 2011!

Two winners will each receive their very own copy of Welcome to Last Chance!  It is very easy to enter:

• You must be 13 years old
• Residents of the US and Canada only
• NO PO Boxes
• Leave a comment WITH your email address on this post
• Drawing ends 3/28
• Winners will be notified by email and have 48 hours to respond
• One prize (of this title) per household

Good luck and as always,

 

~~~~~ Disclaimer:  All opinions expressed on this blog are 100% my own.  I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews but do utilize affiliate links.  I may receive books in  order to facilitate a review, but this does not guarantee a good review - only a completely honest one.  Each review post denotes how I obtained the book.

Guest Post - Hope Ramsay

Today we have a special guest post from author Hope Ramsay.  She has stopped in on her blog tour celebrating the release of her new book Welcome to Last Chance.  I asked Hope what she thinks the appeal of small town living is and here is her reply:

I was born in New York City, and grew up on Long Island, about four miles from the Queens County line. But I still grew up in a small town -- the incorporated village of Great Neck, NY.

Great Neck had a railroad station, a village green with a gazebo, and a business district filled with small town merchants, including a green grocer and a butcher that my mother knew by name. We had store accounts at the pharmacy and the hardware store -- a wonderful place with wood floors and that amazing hardware store smell that you can't find at Lowe's.

Every year, Great Neck hosted a community-wide celebration on Memorial Day. The Village was draped in red, white, and blue bunting and we put on a parade. I marched in the Memorial Day parade as a Brownie, a Girl Scout, and in several marching bands.

Every summer, instead of going off to summer camp, my Aunt Annie took me to South Carolina to visit with my mother's relatives in a town named Denmark that was smaller than Great Neck, but not all that dissimilar. There was a train station, and my Uncle Earnest was the butcher and green grocer. On the Fourth of July they draped Main Street in red, white, and blue. And everyone gathered for a big barbecue down at the local swimming hole on the Edisto River.

Today, I live in Alexandria, Virginia--right across the Potomac from the Nation's Capital. And even though Alexandria has been overrun by the suburbs, it still retains a lot of its small town charm. We have a business district filled with independent merchants, and we hold a parade every year on George Washington's birthday, where we drape the old buildings in red, white, and blue. I've marched in that parade as a Brownies and Girl Scouts leader.

I guess that makes me a bona fide small town girl. So naturally I write small town stories, because that's what I know. I don't think I could write a dark, urban story if my life depended upon it.

And don't get me started on dystopia stories. When I pick up a novel, I want to be encouraged and uplifted, not depressed.

And I guess that's the secret to stories set in small towns. There are lots of folks just like me who want to read about people caring for one another, instead of stories about demons or things that go bump in the night.

I am so grateful that there is a place for both kinds of stories. And I'm grateful for readers who are like me and want to visit a place where people are mostly kind to one another, and the conflicts come from the everyday world of living.

Hope, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us and good luck on the tour with your lovely new book, Welcome to Last Chance.

Readers learn more about Hope by visiting her website at http://www.hoperamsay.com/ and be sure to stay tuned here as my review and a GIVEAWAY will be coming up next!

 
~~~~~ Disclaimer:  All opinions expressed on this blog are 100% my own.  I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews but do utilize affiliate links.  I may receive books in  order to facilitate a review, but this does not guarantee a good review - only a completely honest one.  Each review post denotes how I obtained the book.