Customer Reviews

Lookin' Back, Texas

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first book I've read by this author and it won't be the last. I won't rehash the story line, as it's been clearly covered in the first three reviews, Personally, I find the input from reviewers more helpful than hearing a summary of the story, so I'll cut to the chase.

I chose to read this book on a very long flight home, knowing I wouldn't have time to finish it once I arrived. My busy schedule doesn't allow a lot of time for reading, and it often takes me a couple of weeks to finish. Not so with this one. The humor, unusual plot line, and realistic main characters kept me picking up the book and putting other work aside. I was captivated by the depth and strength of Susannah's introspection and emotions. The spiritual thread was believable and well done. I laughed, worried, found myself surprised at plot twists, and thrilled at the strength shown by Susannah's husband Mike.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone looking for a clean, fun, thought provoking read. Leanna Ellis has written a winner!

Lookin' Back Texas by Leanna Ellis is a startling look at the damage a lie can do to a marriage and a life. Susannah Mullins is going home to attend her father's funeral. But he's not dead. Susannah's mother Betty Lynne is so angry at his leaving her, that she has pronounced him dead and bought the casket. Susannah has returned to her hometown of Luckenbach, Texas in years, and when she does, old friendships and rivalries are quickly re-ignited. But trouble really starts when her husband Mike and son Oliver come to town exposing a secret Susannah had kept in the depth of her heart for over sixteen years. Ellis has a real ear for dialogue making it zing with humor and cut with truth. Many of the characters are typical fiction: small town=quirky, but Susannah and her family are real and multi-faceted. She's very angry with her mother, but can't help seeing those same flaws in her own life. She's tried so hard to be completely different that her mom, but they are both hiding secrets and desperately trying to control everything around them to keep those secrets from spilling out. Ellis doesn't go overboard on the Christian aspect of the book; it's important to Susannah, but she knows that her faith doesn't make her perfect nor does it stop her from sinning. I truly enjoyed this book about faith and family.

WOW!! If you're "lookin'" for a fun and quirky read that packs a one-two spiritual punch, then Lookin' Back, Texas is the book for you. And NOBODY delivers down-home, Texas-size fun better than the Queen of Quirk, Leanna Ellis. With flawless prose, easy-does-it dialogue and heart-and-soul characters that become like family (quirks and all!), Ms. Ellis weaves a truly memorable and wacky yarn that will have you chuckling on one page and tearing up on the next. Delightful and deep at the same time, Lookin' Back, Texas is one of those unique novels whose unforgettable characters--and the lessons they learn--will have you "lookin' back" in fondness for a long time to come.

Suzanne hasn't been back to her hometown of Luckenbach, Texas (say it out loud to get the title, which also refers to numerous characters) in years. She has a comfortable life with her husband and teenaged son in California. When a phone call from her father is cut off, and Linda Lou, Luckenbach's biggest gossip calls and mentions that Suzanne's father is dead, Suzanne packs up for a trip to Texas. She finds her mother acting the regal widow, planning the most elaborate funeral Luckenbach has ever seen. But her father isn't dead. Suzanne decides she'll have to be the one to reconcile her meek father with her controlling mother, and her husband (Mike) and son (Oliver) soon join her in this crazy town. Her own past sins haunt her as she's confronted with ex-boyfriend Drew (now the town sheriff) and her husband-stealing friend Josie is seen at a motel with Mike. Meanwhile, the town is splitting open quite literally--either by earthquake or drought as her parents push further apart, causing Suzanne to worry about the foundation of her own marriage.

I enjoyed Betty Lynne's over-the-top behavior. Always the perfect wife and mother, concerned to the utmost with image, she has decided that she would rather be a widow than a divorcee. Her glee in describing her husband's grisly death is hilarious. Ellis doesn't oversimplify the situation--she shows the toll the "death" takes on Suzanne's father's best friend, and she shows the outpourings of flowers and food from friends and neighbors. I enjoyed the metaphor of faulty foundation for both Suzanne's marriage and the parched earth, and found it to be well executed. Ellis has a wicked sense of humor, especially as she describes Betty Lynne: "It occurs to me that this whole scenario of a make-believe funeral is exactly like something the heroine of Gone With The Wind would do. The first time I saw the movie, I cried when Bonnie Blue Butler died after falling off the horse. I thought it was cruel of Margaret Mitchell to kill off an innocent child. Now I realize it was probably a good decision. I know what it's like to grow up with a mother like Scarlett" (p. 128). And when rumors about Mike and Josie start swirling, "Mother leans forward, resting her elbow on the table and whispers in a conspiratorial tone, 'Wanna have a double funeral?'"

That said, this was really a 300-page novel masquerading as a 400-page novel, so it dragged in places, and there was some repetition I could have done without. Had I been the editor, I would have immediately cut the chapters told from Drew's point of view, which really didn't add anything. I know that Ellis used to write romance novels, and convention in that genre usually dictates writing from both the hero's and the heroine's point of view, but it's out of place here. And at any rate, Drew isn't even a major character. Every twenty or thirty pages, Suzanne agonizes over her big secret, and while I understand that it's always on her mind, especially back in her hometown, the fretting about keeping the secret without any progress toward deciding to tell or deciding not to tell was tedious. As far as the Christian element goes, it wasn't pushed enough to make me dislike the book, but there were passages that were over-the-top for general or women's fiction, and I mostly rolled my eyes and skimmed past. There are several mentions of faith, being faithful, and being committed to marriage, and these were fine and flowed well with the narrative. It was only when they were intrusive on the story, trite ("No relationship is perfect. It's a dance."--Bleh.), unbelievable (her conversation with her son in the grocery store about Jesus just didn't ring true), or contradictory (Suzanne goes on about how she and her husband had to work at their marriage, then later says "My marriage survived, not because of me or Mike but because of God") that I was reminded that I was reading Christian fiction with a capital C. I think Ellis could certainly do well writing general or women's fiction, but I think the born-again element is a bit overdone for a general audience. Her snappy sense humor and apt characterization make me interested in checking out her first (non-romance) novel, Elvis Takes a Back Seat.

When should adult children meddle in their parents' affairs? This story seems humorous on the surface, seeing that the mother of the main character, Suzanne, is planning her father's funeral. Doesn't sound funny? Well, Suzanne's father is not dead.

Actually, this is not a comedy. As usual, Leanna Ellis uses what seems to be a humorous, unthinkable situation to delve deeply into great personal spiritual truth situations. When Suzanne returns to her parents' home to try to help out, she is forced to face some situations in her own life that she had tried very hard to forget.

Leanna develops her characters well and weaves the story line so that it follows along and the reader is anticipating what might happen next. And all the way until the end of the story, it looks as though things will fall apart.

I would recommend this book to anyone, particularly if one is familiar with any of the author's previous writing.

Suzanne Mullins gets a frantic phone call from her father, but it is too garbled to understand. A few minutes later, a neighbor calls and talks about how her father has just died. Suzanne is horrified when she realizes that its her father that died. So, she flies to Texas to be there for her mother. But then she discovers that her father isn't really dead. He just left her mother. And her mother is planning his funeral.

Suzanne is convinced there is something illegal in what her parents are doing, so she calls her lawyer husband for advice. Mike flies out to be with Suzanne, bringing their fifteen year old son with him. But then it seems as if Suzanne's life is starting to spiral out of control.

Not only is her mother determined to have a funeral for a very alive man, but residents of the town are reporting ghost sightings...and Suzanne has a secret she's harbored for years. A secret that could destroy her own marriage.

LOOKIN' BACK, TEXAS is the second book I've read by Ms. Ellis and she is definitely an author whom I'll be checking out her future books. I enjoyed getting to know Suzanne and Mike, and even the considerably off-kilter Betty Lynne and some of her neighbors.

I didn't know that is actually a town named Luckenbach, but my husband knew about it when I started sharing some of the events in this book. Some of the scenes are laugh out loud funny. I literally couldn't put this book down and I read when I should have been doing other things. If you are looking for a great contemporary,

I'd enjoyed Elvis Takes a Back Seat and was very much looking forward to Leanna Ellis' newest novel--and was WOWed, completely. Lookin' Back Texas presents a story extraordinarily appealing on so many levels: as pure escape entertainment with quirky Texas characters (the local gossip, a bumbling deputy shooting a rattlesnake in the sheriff's office and so many more), as "coming home" story, a mother-daughter saga, and--especially--a tender and heart-warming exploration of two generations of marriages (for better or for worse--and boy, can it get rough). Ms. Ellis writes with humor and heart, and weaves a subtle message of faith throughout. I look forward to more work from this author--and to my next visit to Luckenbach, Texas. She's made it feel sort of like . . . going home.

My thoughts and reaction to this book are varied. I felt some of the situations were very contrived and did not feel remotely real. But some - including the non-dead husband's funeral planning - were quite funny and I could easily imagine it. The writing style took a while to get used to, but eventually I was able to lose myself in the book.

The main characters - Suzanne, her mother Betty and her husband Mike - were fairly well developed. I did get involved in their lives and got emotional a few times for them. However some of the other characters and their reactions left me feeling like I was missing a big part of their personality, they were very flat when they could have been quite colorful.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think it was a good story and am glad I got a chance to read it.

I haven't read this yet. It is a book club selection by one of our members. We haven't picked to many duds so far. It came in good condition. We seem to lean toward books about strong women influences.