magnolia wednesdays by wendy wax

genre: fiction/chick lit

recap: {back cover} at 41, vivien armstrong gray has spent most of her life fighting to make it in investigative journalism, only to have it crumble after a bullet lodges in her backside during an expose. as if the humiliation of being the butt of everyone's jokes isn't enough, vivi learns that she's pregnant, jobless, and very hormonal. maybe that explains why she actually says "yes" to a dreadful job covering suburban living back home in georgia, a column she can only bear to write incognito.

leaving her tiny apartment in new york, she reluctantly heads south to experience the suburban soccer-mom existence through her widowed sister's eyes. surrounded by minivans and bake sales, she has lots of material for the column. her sister's ballroom dance studio becomes her undercover spot where she learns about the local life while posing as an extra dance partner. but vivi's little stint starts throwing her for a loop as friendships develop, and a real relationship with her sister blossoms. as she digs up her long-buried roots, and begins to secretly investigate her brother-in-law's death, she starts to wonder if life inside the picket fence is so bad after all...

review: i liked this a lot, the relationship between the sisters and the detail in the descriptions of everything (especially houses). i wasn't quite so pleased with the discovery that clay and jj were gay; i had guessed it fairly early on in the book and didn't like the way the reactions were written. maybe wendy wax was trying to depict how southern women would really react, or maybe she was letting her own opinions shine through. that was just a minor detail, though, and i did still like the ending. i wish there were a sequel or even just an epilogue; i liked the characters and want to know what happens after the book ends. i always wonder how it must feel for authors to see their own books in the bargain bin. it's even bargain priced on amazon.com, but it wasn't a bad book at all. oh well.