Book: The Night the Lights Went Out
Author: Karen White
Publisher and Publication Date: April 11, 2017
Pages: 416
Genre: Chick-Lit, Mystery, Southern
Rating:

*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

 Publisher Overview: 

Recently divorced, Merilee Talbot Dunlap moves with her two children to the Atlanta suburb of Sweet Apple, Georgia. It’s not her first time starting over, but her efforts at a new beginning aren’t helped by an anonymous local blog that dishes about the scandalous events that caused her marriage to fail.

Merilee finds some measure of peace in the cottage she is renting from town matriarch Sugar Prescott. Though stubborn and irascible, Sugar sees something of herself in Merilee—something that allows her to open up about her own colorful past.

Sugar’s stories give Merilee a different perspective on the town and its wealthy school moms in their tennis whites and shiny SUVs, and even on her new friendship with Heather Blackford. Merilee is charmed by the glamorous young mother’s seemingly perfect life and finds herself drawn into Heather’s world.

In a town like Sweet Apple, where sins and secrets are as likely to be found behind the walls of gated mansions as in the dark woods surrounding Merilee’s house, appearance is everything. But just how dangerous that deception can be will shock all three women….

My Review in a Nutshell:

Chick-Lit is either a hit or miss for me, ‘The Night the Lights Went Out’ managed to fall in the middle. Karen White’s writing brings Lorraine Moriarty to mind, with the mom-cliques, and charm. But rather it being Australian charm, it’s Southern. And southern charm is by-far my favorite kind, and White portrays it beautifully.

I had a ball reading the developing  friendship of Merilee and Sugar, who is a hoot, by the way. And reveled in the “what’s up with the woods” aspect. This novel truly is Desperate Housewives in the South. The mixture of Merilee and Sugar- AKA: old and new, is down right hilarious.

Although Chick-Lit is not my forte, I would suggest it to anyone who loves the genre. Especially my southern friends.

My Favorite Quotes:

“Women should know how to do all sorts of things.”