Beth AlbrightReseñas

Romance

TV newsperson going for anchor position. Looks like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, described kind of like one too. Lots of makeup, perfume, etc. Not really character or story line I could get into. Did last to almost halfway.½

I loved this book! This is the second book in the Belles series… Vivi is finally getting married to her prince charming Lewis Heart and she and her best friend Blake O’Hara are fixin’ for the wedding of the century! They’ve got amazing event planners to work with and family and friends helping them. All the characters were a hoot, even Dallas who could be annoying to some. There was so much support and family and in spite of everything going on, my heart was filled with joy and excitement. I was rooting for Vivi and Lewis from the get go… It was filled with Southern charm and love. I can’t wait to start reading Sleigh Belles…

I loved this book! This is the second book in the Belles series… Vivi is finally getting married to her prince charming Lewis Heart and she and her best friend Blake O’Hara are fixin’ for the wedding of the century! They’ve got amazing event planners to work with and family and friends helping them. All the characters were a hoot, even Dallas who could be annoying to some. There was so much support and family and in spite of everything going on, my heart was filled with joy and excitement. I was rooting for Vivi and Lewis from the get go… It was filled with Southern charm and love. I can’t wait to start reading Sleigh Belles…

I really wanted to like this book. Loved the cover, some of my dearest friends and family are sassy Southern belles, one specifically hails from Alabama. But I HATED reporter Dallas Dubois, and the longer I read, the more cartoonishly obnoxious and unlikable she became...

The book opens with Dallas lamenting another flare-up. Anybody else's brain shooting straight to herpes with this? Then it clarifies it's describing Dallas's attraction to Cal Hollingsworth.

We're in Dallas's point of view: "Whatever emotions and secrets brewed behind her crystal-blue eyes, she was determined no one would find out. With long legs up to here and her busty cleavage usually visible down to there, Dallas looked like a centerfold." What character who is not a total narcissistic freak describes HERSELF like this?

In a romance, it should be the hero telling us how hot and delectable the heroine is - and vice versa. Mind you, Cal, the hero, does describe Dallas later on as "gorgeous hair, bright blue eyes and curves that should be illegal in most states, Dallas was basically a fantasy on legs. Not he was all that bad himself..." and then goes on to describe himself as being called gorgeous "but it never really seemed to sink in." Oh, REALLY? *roll eyes*

Later, after having a hissy fit over a volunteer job she's taken on, Dallas demands of a woman who is basically her peer "Fine, please tell that production assistant person I need some Diet Dr. Pepper. I'm already exhausted after that scene out there." She continues to rant, then it says, "Her stomach was in knots, but she was careful not to let anyone see that." Dallas, sweetheart, firstly, after throwing these tantrums, you have revealed all. Secondly, the LAST thing you need to worry about is someone worrying your stomach is in knots.

We get jealous and envious sniping about her stepsister, who always beat her at beauty pageants, and the mean ol' clique that never included her. We don't get that Dallas has a heart, just ambition, envy, and prolly a set of extremely powerful bras.

Then she's crying silently in a bathroom stall - it SAYS she's crying silently, but she's ALSO flushing the toilet over and over to "cover the sounds of her anguish in case anyone walking by could hear her." Now, if she was crying as quietly as she could, but was afraid someone could hear her, I could buy that. DON'T tell me she's crying silently then.

Possibly, in the next pages, Dallas experiences a come-to-Jesus moment and a personality transplant, but I couldn't hang out with this toxic person and her "not a braggard" "flare-up" long enough to find out. I think if this all speaks your language, you may love it, but for me, I got about 10% in and realized MY stomach was in knots about reading any further.

Another great addition to the series. This one is more about Dallas Dubois the reporter who everyone feels is more of an enemy. Dallas finds herself and her family in this one and it turns out wonderfully. With a Christmas Play and Dallas who "Hates Children", The love of her life who doesn't know she has always loved him, and ex step sister offering to be there who wouldn't have been there before. It all comes together. In a fun filled Christmas time tale in Tuscaloosa.½

The Sassy Belles are at it again. Vivi getting ready to get married to Lewis Heart the Voice of Crimson Tide who is making all of her dreams finally come true. The go to pick up their marriage license and find out Lewis is already married shocking to him and Vivi and everyone else, because no one ever though Lewis Heart would get married.

In the mean time Blake Vivi's best friend and Lawyer is keeping her promise to soon to be Ex Husband Harry Heart by making appearances with him while he is running for officer. Sneaking around with Police Detective Sonny Bartholomew who is investigating a murder on a boat in their area.

Then things get interesting trying to find Lewis's long lost wife who he thought was a joke of a marriage when they did get married and didn't realize it was real 13 years ago. Come to find out she is involved some how some way with the Murder Sonny is investigating.

Of Course the end leaves you anticipating the next book in this series. Fun read.

Nerves are high throughout wondering if they are going to find and catch the killer and will they find the wife for sure and get her to sign annulment papers in time for the Big Wedding.

Blake's friend Vivi finds herself in quite the pickle when she has a secret interlude and affair going on with Blake's brother in law Lewis. He appears to die in the middle of their fun.

Blake & Harry (Lewis's estranged brother) are attorney's in practice together as well as married. Blake is rethinking their marriage as Harry is running for office and this sassy belle does not want to be second fiddle to his political realm. She wants to be her own woman and has found their marriage to become more one sided and she is expected to play the perfect wife.

Now Blake and Harry have to find out of Lewis (the estranged brother)is alive or dead and see if they can help Vivi out of murder charges. All with the help of Sonny (cop and ex beau of Blake, whom Blake has feelings for still. Are the feelings really there or are they circumstantial.

All the while dealing with Blake's Mother Kitty and her grandmother Meridee who has some secrets of her own.

This book was based in Tuscaloosa Alabama and had that old southern charm to it hence the sassy bells and we find out the differences between hissy fits and conniption fits. A great story over all I felt like I would know it if I ever visited Tuscaloosa, with some very funny moments and it keeps you reading till the very last page to find out what exactly happens. Is Lewis Alive or Dead?? Must read to find out and all the other twists and turns in between.

They’re baaaccckk-the wacky duo from “Sassy Belles” Blake O”Hara Heart and Vivi Ann Macfadden, return in another book about life in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Being a New England girl, I love reading books about life in the South. Blake and Vivi have found love in their lives and Vivi is getting ready to marry her man, Lewis when they discover he has been legally married to a stripper he pretend married in college. Vivi is pregnant so a delay in the nuptials is not an option and Blake, along with her lover Sonny, ends up as part of an investigation into the background of Lewis’s long forgotten “wife”. Sonny is the head of the local law enforcement and he and Blake reconnected in the previous book. Blake is technically still married to local politician Harry Heart but only until the election is over as their marriage is dead in the water.
I really enjoyed the machinations that Blake and Vivi went through to get Vivi and Lewis to the altar. The wedding planning with the Fru Fru boys was hysterical and the villainess Dallas Dubois also makes a return appearance. Blake and Sonny are a great couple with a lot of heat between them. Vivi and Lewis are just too cute together and the events leading up to the wedding give a perfect look at what their lives will be like together.
This is a really good summer read. I would recommend reading Sassy Belles first if possible because it fills in a lot of the history between all of the players. The third book in the series “Sleigh Belles” is due in September. If it is anything like the first two books it should be a fun book to read

This is the second book in a series. I do not recommend that you dive into this series with this as your first book. I dove into this book without reading the first one and am regretting it mightily. There is very little back-story so I am finding it very difficult to work up any feelings for this group of friends and family. In addition, not knowing the back-story is making it very difficult to understand the attitudes, language and personalities of the characters. In my opinion, light reading this is not. There are so many story lines that you might lose your mind just trying to keep up with the hyperactive antics of this group of Belles.
If you do not appreciate college football and especially if you are not a fan of ‘Bama, you might not see the humor that this book is wrapped in.

This is n interesting mix of different stories –we have a pregnant Vivi, who has just found out that her fiancé is married. A second storyline of Blake a lawyer who is finding herself enmeshed in a hidden relationship with an old beau while she gets a divorce from her husband who is running for the Senate. There is a thread of a story about the wedding planners, Fru Fru Caterers; they are a bit of a cliché.

I grasp that this book is about the Southern culture and the authors’ knowledge of it, but for some reason the interactions and dialogue does not ring as real to me. Of course, this is merely from my point of view and my relationships with the Southerners that I call friends. Everyone just seems clichéd to me. However, alas, I am a Yankee so who am I to judge, right? LOL!

The book may be a bit difficult for ¾ of the country to understand but it still was a fun and entertaining read, with enough heat and mystery to keep you engrossed. That is if you can keep up with this zany group of characters. Bless their hearts! *ARC Supplied by publisher*

Blake's best friend, Vivi, has been caught in the middle of a scandal. Vivi's discreet affair with Lewis, Blake's brother-in-law, is made public when he winds up dead--smack dab in the middle of one of their rendezvous. Now it's up to lawyer Blake and her lawyer husband to get Vivi out of this pickle (which no good Southern belle should ever find herself in). But with the right amount of sass, the right friends, and a strand of pearls, a true Southern belle can overcome anything; even that pesky high-school flame that happens to be the lead detective on the case.

There's something special about The Sassy Belles by Beth Albright. The characters, family, and setting she creates is vivid and real, and puts you there in the story from page one. I've never been to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but I'm sure that if I were to get off a plane there today, It'd feel like I've been there all my life. And that's exactly what Albright was striving for, I'm sure.

The sense of humor that's special to the south (I had no idea pearl necklaces were for fashion AND choking) comes through loud and clear and made me laugh out loud several times. Albright takes special care with each of her characters to make sure they're independent of each other, real, and vivid. After reading her debut novel, I wanted best friends like Blake O'Hara and Vivi McFadden. And who wouldn't want a fiery grandmother like Mother? The Sassy Belles is a fun, quick, summer read filled with sass, humor, mystery, and romance. Not once was it dull or did it drag; the pace kept the book moving nicely.

Albright's storytelling is strong, and her weaving of mystery and twists is masterful. There's a sense of belonging, family, and home between the covers that I can't wait to get more of in her next book, Wedding Belles.

4 STARS

The Sassy Belles does remind me a little about soap operas. They are strong women characters who all have good points and bad faults. Some characters grow up and some grow up too much. In some ways I figured out where the book was going to go but I had to keep reading to find out how it was going to go.

Some scenes just make me smile just by picturing it in my mind humming It's raining men. Other scenes I wanted to shout don't do that. Some scenes were perfect reminders of different southern ladies.

I really like the friendship between Vivi and Blake. They are strong friends because they see each others faults and still like each other and are their for each other. Also forgive each other.

Their are a few love scenes and way to much knowledge of one scene for the cops. Vivi calls Blake and since she is not answering the phone tries Blake's husband Harry. She is upset and tells him she thinks she has killed Lewis during sex.
So instead of calling 911 they both want to talk to Blake.

By the time the police get to the motel their is no body just a sex toy that they left in the room.

It keeps you wanting to read and find out what is going to happen next. I will read the next book in the series and see how the characters are holding up with all the new changes.

I was given this ebook to read and asked in return to give honest review of it by Netgalley.
05/28/2013 PUB Harlequin Mira ISBN: 9780778315285