Customer Reviews

Bad Girl Creek: A Novel

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Who wouldn't want to spend time with the ladies of Bad Girl Creek? Prerequisites to being a part of the Bad Girl phenomenon is to have a great pet; an open mind; a sense of humor; a desire to work hard, and a willingness to open your heart. Ms. Mapson's "girls" have all of those things and more!

Phoebe is the driving "wheel" of the group. She has inherited her favorite Aunt Sadie's flower farm. It is in dire need of money as well as able hands and strong backs to make it go. How to do that without selling out to her brother Stinky? Run an ad in the town newspaper, looking for women who will help her run the farm, in return, they may have room and board for themselves and their pets.

As Phoebe welcomes Ness, Nance, and Beryl into her home, each of them brings along their loving pet. They also bring their fears, hopes, dreams and friendship. Unbreakable bonds form among them; they complete and compliment one another. The ladies of Bad Girl Creek have things in common, but each is an individual and strong woman in her own right.

The men in this story are also well defined. We come to know each of them and understand them as we do the women they love. Juan who's only desire is to please Phoebe; James a/k/a Stinky, who realizes that sometimes money isn't everything; the self-centered newspaperman; David with his money and his horses, and the best surprise of all for me - "Buckethead".

Grab a glass of wine, or a cup of tea. Wrap up in an afghan and cuddle up with your favorite pet. Open this book and enjoy an afternoon or evening with the Girls of Bad Creek. Oh yes, don't forget the chocolate and Kleenex too!!

This book invites you in from the 1st page and doesn't even let go with the last page! I am thrilled that this is going to be a triology. It was too good a journey not to continue. The book starts out with the reading of Pheobe's Aunt Sadie's will. Phoebe has spent her life in a wheelchair just trying to make herself be seen for what she is. A person. And with this will it begins to give Phoebe life. A flower farm is left to Phoebe and she must decide what to do with it and how to make it work to keep it out of her money scheming brother's hands. Phoebe takes in 3 roommates and the story is about how these four women come together, overcome their pasts and insecurities and learn to live for themselves. The wit and the charm of this novel, along with the wonderful animal characters that are also very much a part of this book, make this a fantastic read from beginning to end. Can't wait to read the second in the trilogy.

This is the first Jo-Ann Mapson book I've read but I'll be looking for more. I love the way she told the story. She takes 4 women from different walks of life and makes them roommates. They learn to share their grief and joys, their fears and successes. They go from not trusting anyone to learning they can trust and depend on each other. They learn to take the risk to love again. They have 3 wonderful pets that help them learn these things.These are the kind of friends we all need to have and need to be, the kind that loves and accepts you just the way you are.

In the beginning I was not sure if I would like this book because I was thinking that all the involved in the the story were "bad". True each one had their own past with problems but they all needed a second chance. Ness, I black women who left her roaming husband because he got AIDS. Nance, in a relationship with a man for 3 years and no future. Beryl, relased from jail a year before for killing her abusive husband. Phoebe, a small woman in her 30's confined to a wheelchair. Phoebe was left a dying flower farm business when her Aunt passed away. One by one these 4 women come to live together with their animals to help the business in exchange for room and board. In the process they share their problems with troubled relationships, health, men and so on. Girl power, what more can I say.

I LOVED this book. I couldn't get enough of it. One of my favorite lines from this book is on page 29 "I've just inherited a forty-acre farm, not to mention two luxury automobiles. I'd hardly call that crippled. Phoebe talking to James". I was so totally engrossed that I would lose all sense of time and place. All I wanted to do was see what happened next, and then I was so sad to see it end with out all my questions answered.

I want to know if Ness is going to be okay, and what's up with her and David Snow? I know that Nance and James are working their problems out, but does Nance really think that by sleeping with James it will solve all her problems with Rick? Does Phoebe walk down the path to meet Juan? Do they have a baby girl? I also want to see Beryl's wedding to Earl and the Buckethead concert. But most of all I want to meet the newest roommate.

I can't wait for the sequel!

It took me several chapters of Jo-Ann Mapson's novel to decide if I liked Bad Girl Creek. But once I got into the book I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bad Girl Creek is a story of friendship and love. Phoebe, a thirty something year old woman who is confined to a wheel-chair, finds herself the inheritor of her deceased aunt's flower farm. Still grieving from the loss of her aunt, Phoebe takes on 3 roommates. The duration of Bad Girl Creek centers on how Phoebe comes to find these new roommates & the friendships that form among them. Each roommate brings to the novel her own set of baggage that she must work out. This story is about friendship, of finding one's place in life, of learning to trust others & of having faith. Though the characters have problems, the writing is light and has just enough depth and comfort to make it a worthwhile read.

Yes, smitten. I am smitten with this book. It reads like the journals of the four women who come together to mend their lives before taking off again. They are smart enough to know the right thing to do but end up making some choices which result in emotional chaos in their lives. I am smitten with each of them--Phoebe in her wheelchair; Ness and her horse, Leroy; Beryl and her dark prison past; and Nance. Nance who is probably the most like me. You will relate to every one of these women and you won't want to leave them when the book ends. This is a story of friendship, loyalty, and spirit. A true testimony to what women everywhere long for, if only for a week, a month, or a year. My first Jo-Ann Mapson novel but not my last.

"Bad Girl Creek" is the first in a trilogy by Mapson, one of my favorite authors. To say that I enjoyed this moving book is an understatement---I hated to have it end!

When Phoebe DeThomas is left a flower farm by her Aunt Sadie, it seems a difficult mission for her to make it succeed because she has been in a wheelchair since childhood. She also has to deal with her brother James (he yearns to be wealthy) who would like to see the farm sold to developers. She recruits three other women and their pets via a clever ruse that allows her to carefully choose her new house/workmates. Each arrives at the farm willing to work hard and make it support them.

As one reviewer said, there is not a woman on earth who would not like to live with the four women on the flower farm near Bad Girl Creek on California's central coast. All have come to the farm with disparate problems, varied pasts, and different needs. But they all are determined to work hard, make the place a success, and achieve some harmony in their personal lives. They become a family in the truest sense of the word, even if not related by blood, and begin to learn to trust each other and to see purpose in their lives.

This is a quiet, charming book with characters who tug at your heart and leave the reader wanting to know them and know more about them. These are "women in transition" whose journey I was delighted to share. I do not think enough female authors write of women and their friends and the power of friendships. Too often, women in contemporary literature seem to live in isolation (unlike any women that I know).

As with her other books, in "Bad Girl Creek" Mapson writes about suffering and how to overcome it, but never resorts to writing tear-jerkers. Her strong female characters face their problems - or are encouraged by their friends to do so - and do something about them. The wonderful people in this book will stay with the reader for a long time because of Mapson's ability to make them so real and endearing to us.

In "Bad Girl Creek" we are priviledged to meet four diverse women of various ethnicity, community stature, beliefs, and backgrounds. The one thing they share is the need to find financial footing. Enter Phobe, who inherits a flower farm, but little money to sustain operation. Her remedy.....take in three roommates willing to share her endeavor. What transpires makes for a heartwarming story of friendship in adversity. Through the efforts of four hearts flowers bloom, as well as hopeful futures. This is a refreshing read that exhaults the power and beauty of true friends.

This book is a wonderful read. We meet four diverse women with varying backgrounds and beliefs. Phoebe is confined to a wheelchair as a young woman and inherits her favorite aunt's flower farm. In order to keep it up and running she must advertise for room-mates. Ness, Nance and Beryl enter into Phoebe's life and it forever will be changed...for the better. They are all strong, caring women who arrive with their pets, which is part of the agreement, and their hopes and dreams.

The first person voice in the book shows us the depth and strength of each character. They are intelligent women who in their lives have made some bad decisions and choices. It is here at Bad Girl Creek where they try to right the wrongs. Each woman's strength plays off the weakness or difference of the opposing women. They bond unbelievably well and their stories show how friendship makes adversity so much easier to bear.

I am anxious to read the next book in this trilogy and like so many others, I want to meet the new roomie! This book is a testimony to the true spirit of friendship. I want to change my address and take up residence here.