Two New Humorous Fiction Books

by Susan Roberts

Do you need a good laugh? These two funny books will lighten your mood and make you smile.

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Bummer Camp by Ann Garvin

September 2024; Lake Union; 978-1662518560
audio, ebook, print (331 pages); women's fiction

Two sisters scramble to save their family’s legacy in a funny, huge-hearted novel about grandiose plans and summers to remember 

I have read all of Ann Garvin's books and once again she gives her readers quirky characters who will make them laugh out loud.  Plus this is a book about two sisters - very different sisters who approach their lives in totally different ways.  They have to decide if they are going to continue being at odds with each other or band together to save a family legacy.

Cat and Ginger grew up at their family summer theater camp.  When their parents decided to move on in their lives, they left the management of the camp to Ginger.   In her late 30s, Cat had decided that she wanted nothing to do with the camp and asked for her name to be taken off all of the paperwork.  Cat had spent her entire life taking care of her younger sister Ginger - a very impetuous woman who didn't think through some of her decisions and was often left with a mess.  She decided to hire an inspirational speaker to manage the camp and to make it a camp for adults.  When Cat gets some frantic text messages from Ginger's son, she decides that she needs to go to the camp to see if she can help.  Her goal is to stay only one day and then get back to her calm settled life but when she sees the mess that the camp is in, she has to stay to help out.  Can the two sisters reconcile and save their family legacy or will the planned fundraising gala be a bust and cause the camp to go bankrupt?

Cat is the serious sister who has always cleaned up her younger sister's messes and it's no wonder that she wants to continue her quiet organized life away from her sister.  Ginger acts first and then thinks later.  At times it's hard to believe that they were raised by the same parents but when Ginger gets her life into a total mess, Cat is there to save her from herself which doesn't always make Ginger happy.  The sisters are both very quirky and at times made me laugh out loud.  The funniest part of the book is the fundraising event that will either make or break the camp.  This is another great book by Ann Garvin.

Buy Bummer Camp at Amazon

Who Loves You Best by Marilyn Simon Rothstein

October 2024;  Lake Union; 978-1662516511
audio, ebook, print (267 pages); women's fiction

A woman drops everything to spend more time with her grandchild, only to discover new truths about herself.

I loved this book.  It was a fantastic and often humorous look at being a grandmother and the sometimes competition between two grandmothers -- and in this book it was a competition between three grandmothers.

• Grandmother #1.  Jodi is a 67-year-old podiatrist living in Florida.  She has a thriving medical practice but is willing to drop everything for a week when her daughter asks her to come to the Berkshires to watch her only granddaughter Macallan who is 8.  Jodi knows that her granddaughter spends a lot of time with her paternal grandmother Di and is thrilled to have the chance for some one-on-one time to spoil her granddaughter.
• Grandmother #2 is Di - a hard-nosed real estate agent who is divorced from her first husband.  When her plans get canceled, she moves into her son's house with Jodi - which does not make Jodi very happy.
• Grandmother #3 is the 27-year-old live-in girlfriend of Di's first husband.  Macallan refers to her as Granny Annie and she seems to be the granddaughter's favorite.

So here we have three grandmothers who all want to spoil their only grandchild and want to be #1 in their granddaughter's eyes.  Do I need to tell you that there is a lot of tension between the three of them -- some of it laugh-out-loud funny?.  As the grandmothers try to establish their place in Macallan's life, there is a lot going on in the background with Jodi's daughter's marriage and Jodi's husband's job.  Do the grandmothers really need to compete with each other or do they all bring different strengths to their relationship with their beloved granddaughter?

Even though this book was laugh-out-loud funny in parts, it was also a serious look at families and how they deal with problems in their lives.  You don't have to be a grandmother to experience the family issues that can tear a family apart and the unconditional love that can keep a family together.

Buy Who Loves You Best at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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