EAT, DRINK AND BE FROM MISSISSIPPI

Against the wishes of their strict father, both Courtney and Truely leave their small Mississippi town to seek fame and fortune in separate California locales. When their marriages fail, the siblings drift back together and take in a homeless black teenager, then insinuate themselves into the troubles of a Hispanic family. While their hearts are in the right place, their intentions are self-serving. T. Ryder Smith has the lazy, husky drawl necessary to make this Southern Voices novel believable, but he falls short when he takes on the role of the street-savvy boy who knows more about misery than the siblings do about love. The story would be easier to accept if Smith had done away with the forced accent. E.V.B. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2010]