Book Review Rant: Summer in the South

Summer in the South by Cathy Holton is one of the worst books I ever read. The main character Ava is nothing but "whine whine whine". The writing is full of cliches and is in need of editing: repetition of words and phrases alert! The story meanders and Ava goes from strong woman to whiner to just plain chick lit stereotype.

I have never been so pissed off about (at?) a book in my entire life.

In short, Ava wants to be a write but instead has a crummy job and crummy boyfriend in Chicago. She keeps in contact with a college acquaintance Will (though how and way is vague and completely unbelievable) who just invites her to live with his aunts in Tennessee so she can write a book and she says yes. WTH?

She moves in with these old ladies and then of course the books is full of all these quirky little stereotypical southern characters. Blah Blah Blah. Ava has a sleep disorder and she is either suffering hallucinations because of it or because the house is haunted.

Ava keeps bringing up past family secrets and everyone in the South is all "hush hush" except for the town gossip. Ava snoops around and suddenly gets past her writers block and turns Will's family into her novel.

In the middle of all this mess Ava, whose mother who was a hippie and never gave her a stable childhood and has died, learns that the man that's on her birth certificate isn't dead as her mother told her but alive and well in Michigan. Ava communicates with him and also finds out a whole bunch more of her OWN family secrets. Also, Will wants to make Ava his wife and she wants to be friends, and she's also falling in love with Will's estranged cousin who is the family black sheep named Jake.

Blah blah blah.... all this crap is thrust into one book. It meandered and Ava is totally unfocused. What a hot mess of a book. Pathetic.

I don't mind when an author leaves some things to the readers imagination but it feels like author Holton just got bored and gave up writing the story. And let me tell you something, I was bored reading and ready to give up around page 150. I persevered thinking I would get some answers and to find I was left with nothing really infuriated me as a reader.

Spoilers follow:





So were the apparitions Ava saw really a ghost or just part of her sleep disorder? Or was Josephine slowly poisoning her and the hallucinations part of that?

Was Will going to kill her at the end? Did Will toss her room or was in a ghost?

Who the hell was her father? Who the hell was her mother? How did the woman she called mom ever get her?

Who will she end up with: Jake? Will? None?

Will she go back to Chicago? Does Will kill her?

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS??? None of these questions are answered. Not a single one. I read about 360 pages of this crap to find no answers. I hated each and every single page of this wretched novel.

Worst book ever, ever, ever.

There's a free copy of this book being given away on Goodreads. Consider yourself a winner if you don't get a copy of this book!

Yuck!
Mags