Customer Reviews

Miss Julia Meets Her Match

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Has Miss Julia Springer met her match? Well, if not her match evidently her mate. At long last she has agreed to marry persistent suitor, Sam Murdoch. Yes, she's willing to order new stationery and store her monogrammed linens. As chronicled in "Miss Julia Meets Her Match," fifth in a popular series by Ann B. Ross, the road to saying yes has not been smooth, but rather filled with a few shocks, and much laughter.

As many know, Miss Julia is a prim, extremely proper Presbyterian lady who has met many a challenge with spirit and determination. That's not always easy to do in the small town of Abbotsville where everyone knows everyone else's business. Nonetheless, in sensible shoes with head held high Miss Julia has overcome a great deal.

Wesley Lloyd, her late not great husband was a pillar of the church and an equal opportunity philanderer. He is now gone but surely not forgotten because he left a child. As Miss Julia puts it he dallied for more than a decade with Hazel Marie Puckett who produced a son. Then he left Miss Julia "to clean up the mess and end up with both mistress and son living under my roof. " Nonetheless, the two women have become fast friends and both dote on Little Lloyd.

There's scant time to dwell on the past as news from Velma's Beauty Shop is astonishing: the pastor's secretary, Norma Cantrell, otherwise known as "Miss High and Mighty," was seen leaving the Mountaintop Motel while the married Mayor's car was parked nearby. More startling news: pious and plain Emma Sue, the pastor's wife, has gone to Velma's for an after hours make over. Emma Sue who often says "there'll be no Avon or Mary Kay products in heaven" now bats "the longest eyelashes ever seen outside of a package in Eckerd's Drugstore." This transformation devastates the pastor who fears she will tempt Christians to sin, "stirring the loins of every man who sees her."

Religion plays a large part in Miss Julia's life, especially since the arrival of Dwayne Dooley. He's a man on a mission "to do the Lord's work in Abbotsville and environs." He plans to build a religious theme park on 20 acres of Miss Julia's land. It will be called "The Walk Where Jesus Walked Christian Theme Park," and boast a manger with live animals, "his earthly daddy's carpenter shop in a real-live village," a temple, Jerusalem, and the cave where Lazarus was buried.

Miss Julia's serenity is further interrupted by the arrival of her housekeeper's five-year-old great-granddaughter, Latisha. She's a tiny brown-skinned girl with large eyes and a head full of plaits and barrettes." "How you do, ma'am," the child says upon meeting Miss Julia. "You got a real nice house somewhere down here in North Car'lina, `cept I don't know where that is, but it's where I'm at now." Latisha is much more than anyone has bargained for, including Little Lloyd.

Both funny and endearing "Miss Julia Meets Her Match" is peopled with quirky Southerners who charm. Capricious and sometimes even a tad tetched this cast of characters leads readers on a merry romp that ends too soon.

- Gail Cooke

If you're looking for a "feel good" book, this is the one for you, as are the other books in the Miss Julia series. Each of the books can certainly stand by itself, but I think they would probably read a little easier if you read them in the order in which they were published. A great book!

Miss Julia's household gets a new addition in this book -- the very spontaneous five year old granddaughter of her housekeeper (who is living with her temporarily). And Miss Julia is being urged to marry by Sam, her lawyer boyfriend, but Miss Julia's first marriage to a controlling philanderer has made her wary of a second marriage. She loves Sam and doesn't want to lose him, either -- he's a "catch." And if that weren't enough, Miss Julia has some spin control problems -- she's heard that another of her late husband's lover is back in town (she didn't know he had more than one) and she doesn't want her husband's son (by his lover -- this gets complicated) to hear about yet another lover (for reasons that are never very convincing). So she has to get the woman to leave town before the gossip begins in earnest. This woman is part of a group that's building a Jesus-based theme park just outside town. One of the pillars of this small southern town has a son return to visit -- only now he's a daughter... And then there's the pastor's secretary seen leaving a motel...and the pastor's wife has suddenly started wearing makeup...So this gossipy little town has plenty to talk about.

You get the idea. Lots of the little things that make up everyday life. I think this is probably a woman's book, and probably even an older woman's book (Miss JUlia is no spring chicken). It's about small town life in North Carolina, although I have no idea if it's acccurate. Miss Julia is a likeable, believable character, and this book is quite amusing.

I spent a wonderful raining Saturday afternoon curled up with Ann Ross' newest book. I just love Miss Julia. She fiesty, outspoken and a take charge woman. How I wish I could be more like her! She reminds me of Mrs. Norris in another series I adore, the Dorsetville series by Katherine Valentine. I hope both authors keep them coming...

Voice performer Claudia Hughes gives a superb reading of this "Miss Julia" story, perfectly capturing the modulated, softly Southern tones of our protagonist. The cast of
characters gives Hughes ample opportunity to display her talents as she segues to the proclamations of housekeeper, Lillian, and her rambunctious five-year-old great-granddaughter.

Hearing Miss Julia is both fun and entertaining, thanks to Claudia Hughes.

- Gail Cooke

This book is perfect for enjoying a day in the sun. I personally enjoy the books without all the sex, profanity and violence, and all of these books have humor, friendships, mystery and more.

Hooray for Miss Julia, she isn't a Miss anymore!!!

This is my first "Miss Julia" book and I found it quite delightful. The book is all about small-town life in the South and is a tongue-in-cheek look at the attitude that appearances are everything. Miss Julia is approached by Dwayne Dooley who wants to lease some land that she owns in order to build a Walk Where Jesus Walked theme park. Although her Presbyterian sensibilities are riled by the thought of commercializing Christianity, Miss Julia agrees that this is a good business deal and decides to go through with it. Meanwhile, scandals abound as several prominent citizens are observed in highly questionable situations and the women of the town are quite happy to jump to all sorts of nefarious conclusions. Added to this, Miss Julia's boyfriend Sam Murdoch tries his best to convince her to marry him. It's all in good fun and makes for an enjoyable read.

Ann B. Ross' character Miss Julia continues to be her irrepressable self despite challanges that would send you or me to our beds.

In this installment of her life, Miss Julia, a Steel Magnolia of a certain age, finds herself surrounded by rumor and innuendo. In a moment of weakness she has agreed to sign a lease on some "useless" acreage she owns outside of town. The man to whom she signs over control of this property is Dwayne Dooley. Mr. Dooley tells Julia that the Lord "has laid it on him" to build a theme park depicting the milestones in the life of Jesus. He's going to call it "the "Walk Where Jesus Walked Christian Theme Park", better known as WWJW.

Julia's decision to lease the property meets with hostility from her Presbyterian minister, Larry Ledbetter. Rev. Ledbetter doesn't think that this kind of thing is the proper way to represent the life of Jesus. Pastor Ledbetter, however, seems to think almost everything Julia does is improper or scandalous and one has to ask why she would remain a member of this church after all the times he's tried to undermine Julia's best of intentions. Why he even conspired with a psychiatrist once to have Julia declared imcompetant after her husband Wesley Lloyd died and left his entire fortune to her. Pastor Ledbetter was of the belief that Wesley Lloyd's intent had been to leave all his money to the church and he intended to see that it happened just that way.

Shortly after Julia signed the lease to Dwayne Dooley, the town once again becomes enmeshed in a hotbed of gossip and scandal, some of which Julia finds directed toward her. Dawyne Dooley appears to be living with a certain Miss Mooney who claims that she was another one of Julia's late husband Wesley Lloyd's paramours. Miss Mooney, having no shame, seems to have delighted in describing the hows, whens and wheres of her many trysts over the years with Julia's unfaithful husband.

Julia is fearful of the news not so much for herself, but for "Little Lloyd", the innocent child of Wesley Lloyd's 10 year dalliance with Hazel Marie. Juila doesn't want "Little Lloyd" to think badly of his father so she sets out to find a way to get rid of Miss Mooney.

In order to divert gossip from herself & her little family, Miss Julia decides to throw a party to introduce Miss Tonya Allen to local society. The lovely and fashionable Tonya, known all her life as Tony (Anthony) in the town where she/he grew up, is back home after successful sex change surgery. If anything can take the gossips off the scent of Miss Mooney, it will be this Julia reasons.

Add all of this excitement to the fact that Miss Juila has decided maybe she IS in love with her long time admirer and dogged suitor, Sam Murdoch after all. In Sam, Julia truly has met her match.

Ann B. Ross continues to entertain with wit, romance, and just a dash of suspense in this 5th book in the "Miss Julia" series. Will Miss Julia say "yes" to Sam? Has Wesley Lloyed cheated from the grave----again? If you have read the first 4 of the series, you'll want to find out......

Reading this series really is like paying a visit to an old friend. I admire the way the author has let her characters develop in circumstances that do not seem contrived. Wacky, maybe, but not contrived! Miss Julia has her own "logic" about why she does what she does, and it leads to some interesting situations! I was laughing out loud at the mapcap "reconnaissance mission" (complete with Miss Julia peeling out away from the scene) and one of the new characters, little Latisha, is adorable. I hope she stays in the story line. All told, a great addition to the series. I will look forward to my next visit.