Book Review: Thirty and a Half Excuses

   Today's review is on Thirty and a Half Excuses by Denise Grover Swank

I have read just about all of Swank's books and I can't praise her work much more than I already have. She writes beautifully and with such intensity and grace that if you're not immediately drawn in, or you don't fall helplessly in love with her characters you're not doing it right. But when all is said and done I do have but one complaint.

Ms. Swank is so talented that she seems to pop out book after book after book. I can't keep up!! Eeek!!! Just when I think I'm caught up she comes out with another instant Bestseller. And this third installment of the Rose Gardner series is no different. Why or why did I have to fall in love with so many of these imaginary people? Just one of whom is Ms. Rose Gardner.

So what do we know about Rose? We know that she has visions that may or may not come true. We know that she's the town pariah to most of the other residents of Henryetta. And we know that she attracts trouble like bees to honey. Thank goodness she has Joe to watch out for her and protect her. Wait, what's that?! Joe's on another undercover operation? Then thank goodness she has Mason Deveraux, III to watch our for her and protect her. (And boy does she need someone to protect her.)

Rose and her sister have finally opened the Gardner Sisters Nursery and are off to a great start with their first big job. They've been hired to work on the church grounds of The New Living Hope Revival Church, courtesy of its own Reverend Jonah Pruitt. But when both Joe and Mason caution Rose about working with the Reverend, she's hesitant to follow through. And when he becomes a prime suspect in the murder of two long-time Henryetta residents, well, Rose is also implicated.  It's going to be up to Mason to keep her safe.

While trying to confirm the Reverends innocence Rose forces a vision in which she sees a women being murdered in Jonah's kitchen. The woman is wearing a white slip dress, a diamond engagement ring, and gets shot in the head. But who is this woman, and will Rose be able to save her in time?

As if that's not enough danger and drama for you, Joe and Mason's secret is revealed and a choice must be made. Now that I have finished reading I'll be waiting on pins and needles to find out what the effects of that choice are.

Don't write anything else Denise. Just focus on the next Rose Gardner book and I won't fall behind again. *wink, wink*

Another book by Swank that is bound to top the charts!

5 of 5 stars
Available at Amazon



Book Description: via Amazon

Life in Henryetta, Arkansas is turned upside down with the arrival of a televangelist, but it’s the death of a little old lady on Rose’s street that catches her attention. The Henryetta police deem her death natural causes, but Rose suspects foul play and so does an unlikely supporter– the president of the Busy Body Club, her eighty-two year old neighbor Mildred.

But Rose is in the middle of opening her nursery with her sister Violet, who’s separated from her husband Mike, as well as stalling her boyfriend Joe’s family, rich socialites who are determined to meet her. Along with her multiple encounters with Fenton County’s new assistant DA, Mason Deveraux III, it’s just another day in the life of Rose Gardner– chaos.