Customer Reviews

Hissy Fit

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The first few pages read like a typical "chick lit"-type book: during her rehearsal dinner, main character Keeley discovers her fiancé and best friend inappropriately engaged, and she flies into a rage which gives the book its title. Predictably, she seeks comfort from another close friend, Austin, the requisite gay character. Beyond this point, however, Hissy Fit is anything but predictable.

Enter Will, new in town and both single and rich--a perfect new love interest for Keeley, right? Well, not exactly, as he has already fallen head-over-heels for a blond knockout, but he does hire Keeley's interior design firm to renovate a local mansion in order to win over his heart's desire. In the midst of her hectic new work schedule, Keeley finds herself not only questioning her beliefs about love and fidelity but also longing to discover the fate of the mother who left Keeley and her father when she was just a child.

This is a light read but with a breadth and depth rarely seen in this humourous genre. You will laugh, you will think, but most of all, you will enjoy this book.

What a funny, funny book. The main character is a completely believeable young woman caught in the unfortunate situation of discovering a cheating fiancé the night before the wedding. What's a woman to do? Pitch a fit.

Like other Mary Kay Andrews stories, this has an element of fairy tale: in this case, restoring a Southern mansion and having access to unlimited funds. There are also several fairy-tale-like antique buys that had me sighing. And then there is the matter of the perfect bra...

A strong sense of place -- of several places, actually -- permeates this light read. If you come away without wanting to visit rural Georgia and several locations of flea markets in the South, you will not have been paying attention. In all these places readers meet up with deftly drawn characters, people you would certainly recognize on the street. The mystery at the heart of the story solves itself in the reader's mind with at least a third of the book to go. But the places and people kept me engaged and laughing out loud until I turned the last page.

This is one of those books that you do not want to read if you are somewhere that has little toleration for laughing and giggling while you read.......add a few gasps for outrageous behavior!!!!
Hissy Fit is the story of a young interior designer, Keeley, whose life will be taking a sudden unexpected turn when she finds her fiancé and her best friend in a compromising position the night before her wedding is to take place.
Mary Kay Andrews fills her book with laugh out loud humor, crazy, outrageous behavior and reactions as well as a tender, loving father daughter relationship whose very ground may be rocked by the events that will unfold. She surrounds Keeley with a group of unique and interesting characters that move this book along at high speed. You simply have to turn the page to find out what will happen next, only to be surprised time and again. This is too good not to read!!

There's dark stuff aplenty in this book that, at face value, appears to be a bit of fluff. No way, José. The hissy fit of the title occurs during a wedding rehearsal dinner in antebellum Georgia at which Keeley, bride-to-be, discovers her intended doing the deed with one of her attendants. The wedding is cancelled and the town is set on its ear by the events that follow, including southern small town revelations of deep and distressing secrets, some of which relate to Keeley's vanished mother.
A good read with much more to offer than the title and book jacket suggest.

Keely Murdoch's life is all set. She is a successful interior designer, with her work published in several magazines, and she is marrying a handsome wealthy banker in the morning, after she gets through this nightmare rehearsal dinner. When a drunken guest gives her a margarita shower, she rushes off to clean up. As she passes the boardroom door, she hears the distinctive sounds of her fiance and her maid of honor "doing it" inside, she opens the door, catches them in the act and throws a hissy fit that will go down in the history of Madison, Georgia. Naturally, the wedding is off, but for some reason, everyone except for her family and a few others, blame Keely. To top it all off, the family of the almost groom are trying to run her and her aunt out of business. Into this mess walks, Will Mahoney. He has bought the local bra plant and plans to bring it back to prosperity. He has also bought a local plantation house and wants Keely to restore and decorate it for him and his future bride. The problem is, he hasn't actually met her yet and doesn't exactly know her tastes. He saw her on a PBS pledge drive and fell in love. Since the Murdochs business is not exactly booming, they take on the job and its crazy deadline and get to work.

The plots, subplots and characters of the novel are all wound together wonderfully. I love the southern setting and the quirky characters of the story. They all seem very real. This story has it all, humor, romance, mystery and a great cast of characters.

I read this book in literally one sitting. I could not put it down. And I have to admit, since reading the book, I've been calling every man in my life an "ash hole."

Keeley is what every small-town southern girl wants to be, when she grows up. She's beautiful, classy, and has a great sense of style. Her fiancé, AJ is the pain in the "ash," spoiled little butthead that every girl has met, and probably dated at least once in her life. Will is crazy, rich, and red-headed, yet touchingly down to earth, and realistic. Keeley's best friend Austin is gay, funny, sweet, and just absolutely "divine!"

Keeley finds AJ and her best friend doing the dirty, on the night before their wedding. She throws a hissy fit. THE hissy fit. The hissy fit to end all hissy fits! And so our story begins.

Since AJ's family is now trying to put her interior decorator business, out of business, Keeley takes a job restoring Will's beautiful historical mansion. She gets a lot of help from her friend Austin, and a lot of interference from Will's shallow witch of a girlfriend. In the midst of all this, she is trying to solve the mystery of how and WHY her mother disappeared when she was a child. And to top it all off, she has been the only woman in her father's life for many years, but now a beautiful Asian from Baton Rouge has stepped into her father's life, and heart.

Every page is filled with low-down, dirty, fun entertainment. It has a little bit of everything; mystery, romance, comedy... just an absolutely fun read. There wasn't a single page of this book that dragged me down, or bored me. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, but especially to any female who was raised in a small southern town, like me.

I bought this book because of the reviews that people wrote, but I was really disappointed. The "hissy fit" occurs at the very beginning; and the main character does something crazy with toilet water toward the middle, but that's about it. This book was actually very depressing because of her missing mother. Her engagement is over, she tries to put pieces together about her mother's whereabouts, and is concerned about a bra factory that may be closing. The end of the book is okay, but the stuff about her mom was almost too upsetting to even care about the way it concluded. I'm not so sure I'd recommend this book, but I do like others written by this author. Mary Kay Andrews also puts recipes in the back of the books, which is a very cute idea.

Mary Kay Andrews wrote Savannah Blues, a book that I really really liked. Hissy Fit is the book that has convinced me to strike Andrews from my reading list.

Briefly, it's the story of interior designer Keeley Murdock, who throws a 'hissy fit' when she finds her fiancee and her maid of honor doing the deed at the country club rehearsal dinner.

This seems to be a book that tries to capitalize on the current interest in decorating and shopping that fuels HGTV. It's page after page of descriptions of furniture, rooms, shoes, clothes, food....I love all that....but this is more than even a dedicated shopper, gourmet, home decorator can take.

My suggestion? Find yourself a chocolate cupcake and a glass of milk, and just go on and turn on HGTV.

No one can throw a good old-fashioned stop light red hissy fit better than Tony nominee Isabel Keating. When she's angry, you know it. When she's oozing Southern charm, you succumb. A mighty fine vocal performance, y'all.

A former journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mary Kay Andrews wowed readers with "Little Bitty Lies" - she does it again with "Hissy Fit."

Interior designer Keeley Rae Murdock is all set to walk down the aisle in what is certainly going to be the wedding of the season in Madison, Georgia. These nuptials have been planned down to the most glorious minute detail. What wasn't planned on was the groom, A.J., carrying on with the maid of honor at the rehearsal dinner. Wedding's off, and so is Kathy as she throws a fit that can be heard throughout most of our southern states.

Well, this is more excitement and gossip fodder than Madison has enjoyed in many moons. A.J.'s proud family isn't going to take this lightly so they attempt to ruin Keeley's business. Rescue arrives in the person of Will Mahoney who's just bought a local lingerie factory. He wants Keeley to redo a rundown antebellum mansion so he can woo and win the woman of his dreams.

Cash strapped, she takes on this challenging chore and along the way also discovers how to give two-timing A.J. the treatment he so richly deserves. After all, she's not a designer for nothing.

"Hissy Fit" is a fun, thoroughly enjoyable listening experience.

- Gail Cooke

I wish that Mary Kay Andrews had many other books like this. I couldn't put it down.