Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch - Haywood Smith

Category: Books

Genre: Southern Fiction / Friendship

Author: Haywood Smith

Overview and Review of Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch by Haywood Smith.

First Sentence:

"I took the long way home that fateful midsummer day last July, maybe because I still couldn't quite believe what I was about to do."

Linwood Breedlove Scott, just divorced her husband Phil who ran away with a stripper. Along the way, the IRS took everything away except for her coffee table. Now, she is about to go back to her hometown - conservative + gossip = Mimosa Branch, GA to create her new life. Her childhood home with her parents is what Lin often refers to as the "loonybin", where she thinks everything is crazy. Little did she know that the place and people she calls the "loony" were the people who matters to her most and would stick with her and show her "real love".

It was a bit boring at first, maybe because I felt the heat of the place while I was reading (it's also quite hot sometimes here in our city). But, as I moved into a much cooler place to read I enjoyed the book. For one thing, it is outrageously funny. It is also an easy read and written very well. It basically focuses on friendship and family. Funny "green" can be read as well. And the mix of interesting characters made up most of the story.

For a fiction and comedy it's amusing how the writer never missed out on some life lessons you would get from here: Moving on and creating a new life is not always as easy as it seems. That it is a big, fat waste of energy to fight change.

Lin: "Yesterday's gone, tomorrow's always a day away, but today's a gift. That's why it's called the present. It took a lot to teach me how to live the gift, but I wouldn't change a bit of it, because it got me here."