Saturday, December 21, 2013

War-N-Wit, Inc.—Mean Street, LLC by Gail Roughton


 

Blurb:

Another wedding day dawns for the ever-growing Garrett-Forrester Coven as Spike and Stacy get ready to say “I do”! Don’t expect weddings bells and white gowns, though. It’s off to the Drive-Thru Tunnel of Love at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Vegas. Again. It’s sort of a family tradition. But what’s supposed to happen in Vegas just refuses to stay in Vegas. And you’re not going to believe this side-trip!

Review:

I love the Garret-Forrester Coven, and Gail Roughton is a good enough writer to keep a series fresh, so the reader stays engaged. War-N-Wit, Inc.—Mean Street, LLC does not disappoint. When Stacey’s sister, Ariel met Chad’s brother Spike, it was love at first site and they knew they’d have a marriage made in …somewhere. They invite Stacey and Ariel’s parents to the wedding, knowing what a shock the whole thing will be for their gently-bred, Southern mom. Grace Anson always envisioned either church or garden weddings for her daughters, with flowing white gowns, flowers, ribbons, and crystal flutes of champagne afterward either still in the garden, or at a country club, or a very nice hotel—not a Vegas drive-thru wedding, and certainly not on the conveyances her daughters have in mind.

But, the girls are not the only ones having family problems. War-N-Wit, Inc. often works for a concern called “Mean Street, LLC,” a family-owned company run by a man named Gabe Smith. He calls Chad and asks him and Stacey to, “Check out a magic act on the Strip. No big deal.” Gabe and his brothers Mike and Raph are having problems with their brother, “Lucy” (a childhood nickname he hates), and it turns out to be a very big deal. Good thing Stacey’s cat, Micah has managed to “follow her” to Vegas—again.”

Gail Roughton is great at creating characters who are engaging. They keep you laughing, on the edge of your seat, rooting for them, and then laughing some more. While Ms. Roughton didn’t exactly write this as a Christmas/Yule tale, I think it kind of fits this week. Like most of her War-N-Wit novellas, it’s way too short. Oh, it’s complete. It stands well on its own. But it’s only a little over a hundred pages, so it goes really fast and leaves you wanting more.  I would have give the book five roses, but I found some comma splices.  Et tu, Ms. Roughton?  Aw me-ann!

Length:  111 Pages
Price:  $2.99

Thanks for visiting. RIW

3 comments:

  1. Rochelle, thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed the Smith family along with the Garrett-Anson-Forresters! (Comma splices? You sure that wasn't just me speakin' Southern?)

    ReplyDelete
  2. 'Fraid not. I learned about comma splices at the College of Chaaalston (South Carolina). A comma splice was an automatic F in English Comp 101 there. It's when you take two independent clauses and splice them together with just a comma. It can be fixed one of four ways--with a semi-colon, by adding a conjunction, using an em-dash, or separating it into two sentences. "It was cold outside, I wore long-johns today." That's a comma splice. Here it is fixed the four ways. "It was cold outside; I wore long-johns today." "It was cold outside, so I wore long-johns today." "It was cold outside--I wore long-johns today." "It was cold outside. I wore..." As an editor, comma splices are one of my pet peeves. Probably no one else notices them, unless they went to the College of Charleston when I did. ;-)

    ReplyDelete