Review: Funny, warm, and very riveting read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 9, 2012
Misty Dawn James', who has just turn  21 years old runs away to California to live with her wild  Aunt Marigold, who happens to be her mother's identical twin sister. Her mother and her Aunt Marigold are like night and day as far as personailities go. Her mother is a very strict religious person, who lives the rural farm life. While her sister Marigold, lives in California and lives life on the wild side. She's been married 3 times so far, but there's only one person she has ever loved. There's a secret she's kept regarding the love of her life, but she waits to let that cat out of the bag until the end of the story.Back to Misty....The culture shock both confounds and delights Misty. When she lands a job as a waitress at the Spaghetti Factory near the train station, she makes friends with Jackie-a young gay man, Who is a complete hoot! And also befriends a girl named  Scarlet...a tattoed and multi-pierced young woman. Next she meets Esteban, a handsome young Hispanic man who is going to law school, and they fall quickly for each other.Her mother is a complete control freak who does everything in her power to lay the guilt trip on Misty every chance she gets, with hopes of luring her back home. Her Aunt Marigold repeatedly tells her not to fall for her mother's antic's, and even steps in and takes over writing her return e-mails. When her mother calls and tells her, that her father has been rushed to the hospital with a heart attack, she doesn't know whether to believe her or not. Eventually she decides to go back home after talking with her brother, but she so torn about leaving Esteban, her friends, Aunt Marigold, her job, and the life she's built behind.When Misty's father dies in Iowa, and she returns to help her mother, she's forced to make a tough decision. Can her relationship with Esteban survive the challenge?I can't say enough about the characters in this book, or the story line itself. By the way....the conversation between Misty and her Father while he was on his death bed made me cry buckets of tears, so be prepared.Jackie is so dang funny! He had me all but rolling on the floor with laughter one minute, but feeling so bad about the way he was shunned by his family the next.Scarlet is quite the character herself, and she's become a real true friend to Misty.Aunt Marigold can be wild and so adventurous, but she has a real soft spot and a heart of gold... when it comes to Misty and her friends.This book is so...so good! I haven't read anything else by this author, but after reading this book I plan to check out her other works.Would I recommend this book? You bet I would! It's a must read for everyone!!!