Customer Reviews

Mama's Comfort Food

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mama's Comfort Food is the third book in Rhett DeVane's series set in Chattahoochee, Florida, a town with two stoplights and a state mental hospital. Reading this story is like spending time within a warm nurturing family that expands and contracts according to the needs of the family and the community. After a number of years living and working in Atlanta as Mary Elizabeth Kensington, a successful career woman in public broadcasting, Karen Fletcher returns home following a cancer diagnosis to find the woman she has always been. While the journey is a difficult and treacherous one, Karen is surrounded with love and support every step of the way. DeVane successfully melds the horrors of breast cancer with such warmth and humor that the reader comes away knowing the secret to survival.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982901526/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title

Rhett DeVane's third novel in her series set in the small town of Chattahoochee, Florida is exceptional. Her ability to tell a story of heartbreak and courage with such realistic emotion and compassion is without measure. I love the way "Karen's" family found ways to use their love and humor to help her through such a horrific experience; and how forgiveness for her 20-year slight was never questioned. As a close neighbor to Chattahoochee (Tallahassee, FL) I can truthfully say that the personalities involved in DeVane's books are so believeable. I bought this book for my seven sisters and two best friends and without one exception they all rate it tops. Thanks for another heartfelt, wonderful story about how friends and family cope with a real-life experience.

Smooth as whipped butter, sweet as melted chocolate, refreshing as ice mint tea, Rhett DeVane's book melts on the tongue and slides down with all the comfort of, well, mama's comfort food. With writing is as rich as Carol Burns's Mama's Secret Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies (included), Rhett takes us to the thriving small town of Chattahoochee, Florida, home of one of Florida's Mental Health Hospitals for the Criminally Insane, and home to Karen Fletcher/Mary Elizabeth Kensington, who is undergoing a crisis of her own.
Over twenty years ago Karen Fletcher turned her back on everything and moved to Atlanta. She changed her name, assumed a British accent, and became a celebrity on Georgia Public Television known as Mary Elizabeth Kensington. She has two cats and a fiancée in Atlanta, and yet she is alone preparing to face one of the most terrible of diseases: breast cancer.
Unsure of her welcome, Karen/Mary arrives on her mother's doorstep. DeVane weaves a story of compassion, humor, and poignancy that resonates with anyone who has gone through the agonizing process of dealing with a serious illness.
Karen Fletcher must not only come to grips with the disease, but with herself, too. It is time she decides who she really is. DeVane tells a rich tale filled with Karen's family and friends. We ride along with Karen's ups and downs, intermixed in the small town life that not only thrives in the south, but in every corner of the world; A place where people come together to support one of their own.
DeVane skillfully weaves the tradition of food as mankind's basic comfort along with compassion and caring in this heart-warming book.
As Margaret, says: "You see, its one thing to go around saying that you'll be healthy and live a long life. It's entirely another to really live each day as if it was the greatest gift in the universe. Love your family. Kiss babies. Play with abandon. Make chocolate cake and . . . sit and watch a sunset."
Allow me add: Read Mama's Comfort FoodMama's Comfort Food

Rhett DeVane's love of what's good and right in people makes this book a wonderful read. Her description of the kind gestures of her small-town community of Chattahoochee, Florida provoked me to just fill the car and head home to the Carolinas. Rhett provides enough details on each of the characters to make you exclaim "why, that's just like my cousin Sandy". You will find yourself feeling empathy for the challenges of the community and for Karen's journey through cancer. Even when a character is being judgmental it is wonderfully funny. Hats off, Ms. DeVane, you indeed have hit a home run here.

Rhett DeVane's Mama's Comfort Food is just that ---- comfort while reading about a small southern town with people living productive, yet simple lives. I am honored to know Rhett so the book has special meaning for me as I read character names who are actually names of Rhett's family members and friends. As I read, I can feel the presence of some of these people and the characters have the same manerisms as the real people do. The book is funny (just like the author with her great sense of humor), serious and contains "hidden messages". You will enjoy the comfort you feel as you read this great book! Thank you, Rhett DeVane, for bringing back memories of such a special place with special people!

Robert Frost was right: if you go home, they will take you in. Mary Elizabeth Kensington has not exactly been kind to her family, but when she faces breast cancer, they fold her right back into their arms. Mama's Comfort Food is the story of community found in small towns where neighbors look out for neighbors, no matter how whacky they might be. This is the third of DeVane's Chattahoochee novels, and like the others, the story is told with heart and humor. A good read!

As a born and bred Yankee transplant, living in and around the areas described in the book, I was pleasantly surprised by the humor, heartache, and spirit of community Rhett DeVane describes through her poignant tale; this is the community I have come to know and love.
As a young woman trying to reinvent herself Mary Kensington/Karen Fletcher does the unspeakable, abandoning her close-knit community of North Florida, for the metropolitan flair of Atlanta, GA-only to return to the folds of her childhood community to find love, kindness, humor, and all the beauty of rural life in the southern US.
From the enticing recipes, that make your mouth water, to the hugs you can feel when described by such a talented writer. A must read for all those who believe you can't go home again!

Rhett DeVane delivers a well-told story of family and friends who celebrate community and keep each other steady in hard times and good. Her characters are true and compelling AND most of them are pretty good cooks. Mama's Comfort Food reinforced my belief in the good will of human nature, but it also provided me with a handful of good Southern recipes.