Review: Have a ball with this one!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2014
Stephanie, known as Stevie, was orphaned in her early teens and raised the rest of the way by her older brother. Well, at least he tried – but Stevie still has some growing up to do. Her brother's married, he and his wife are expecting a baby, and Stevie is having a prolonged jealous snit. Impulsively, she decides to show everyone how adult and competent she is. She applies for, and gets, a job for which she's ill-prepared, as an event planner for a wealthy woman whose club is getting ready for a big charity bash. Complications ensue, involving a snobbish and overbearing club member, her employer's teenaged granddaughter, and most of all her employer's attractive younger son, who has personal problems and family resentments of his own."Having a Ball" is told largely in e-mails between the various characters, all of whose motivations, styles, and voices are distinctly individual. The resulting conflicts and confusions, as the date for the party approaches, are gripping, entirely believable, and hilarious. Juggling her story's components, Rhoda Baxter keeps them all in the air with a sure hand. As a reader, I was totally drawn in, and when the big evening arrived and the party got underway I was literally unable to put the book down.Baxter advertises herself as a writer of "smart romantic comedy," and here she fulfills every bit of that promise wonderfully well. As a bonus, "Having a Ball" is so sensually and visually compelling that I'd love to see it made into a film!