Take it away Sophia Rose
Enjoy!
#2 The Alice Chronicles
Chick Lit
Publisher: Raucous
Eucalyptus Press
Published: 11.18.17
Pages: 256
ASIN:
B0778999M9
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Format: eARC
Source: Lola’s Blog
Tours
Sellers: Amazon
ADD TO: GOODREADS
GoodReads Blurb:
It’s Christmas in Orange County, California, and the mall is
full of purple peacock decorations, large and small. Department store employee
Aracely Martinez has a goofy Cuban friend, Quito (who’s awfully cute in his
mall Santa suit), distracting her from her night-shift restocking job. But
Aracely has a long-held secret, which her supervisor at the store, Jacob
Thinnes, is about to tell to the wrong folks, knowing it will throw her life
into complete upheaval. To keep him quiet, she must do everything he wants.
Which is too much.
Enter Aracely’s oldest friends: Alice Chalmers, Georgette Jones and Julie Bowers. The group’s “Venus Warrior” bond from the 2003 production of The Venus Monologues at Garden Beach Community College is still very strong, and these women are ready, willing, and able to kick some butt to help Aracely out of her difficult bind. Join Aracely’s Three Wise Women plus the ever-present Cuban trickster, Quito, in one adventure after another as they work against the odds to give Aracely the life of her dreams for a fabulous, nearly impossible Christmas gift.
Which is too much.
Enter Aracely’s oldest friends: Alice Chalmers, Georgette Jones and Julie Bowers. The group’s “Venus Warrior” bond from the 2003 production of The Venus Monologues at Garden Beach Community College is still very strong, and these women are ready, willing, and able to kick some butt to help Aracely out of her difficult bind. Join Aracely’s Three Wise Women plus the ever-present Cuban trickster, Quito, in one adventure after another as they work against the odds to give Aracely the life of her dreams for a fabulous, nearly impossible Christmas gift.
Read an excerpt:
She sat on a bench in the middle of the crowded mall while Alice went
to buy some drinks. Right across from the bench, there was a line a mile long
of children waiting for a turn on Santa’s lap. The Santa setup was an
extra-wide chair right in front of a little wooden house labeled NORTH POLE.
Next to that sat a big, wooden sleigh, painted magenta, with a giant bag of
wrapped “presents” in it. But instead of being pulled by eight reindeer, this
year, the beast in front of the sleigh was a huge purple peacock, complete with
sparkly magenta and purple feather plumes topping a giant tail fan.
Something about this did not quite mesh with the picture of Santa that
Aracely had from her past few years in this country, but she couldn’t quite put
her finger on it.
Then she heard it—the thing that changed her day completely. Cameras
were flashing and children were whining, yet through all that, Aracely heard a
voice she recognized.
“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!" a young, skinny Santa with quite
dark eyes, a baritone voice and a familiar Spanish accent said to a little girl
on his lap. "What do snowmen eat for breakfast? Huh? Do you know? Hah.
They eat Frosted Flakes. Funny, huh?”
With mixed feelings, Aracely got up and made her way through about a
million shoppers, cutting through the line of mothers and strollers, heading
for the velvet rope Santa sat behind. Was that him? The guy who’d quit working
when she had, maybe in solidarity
with her? The guy whose handsome face, crappy grammar and air of wannabe-Paco
Rabanne she’d missed all month? The guy who had probably let slip the biggest
secret of her life to the absolute worst person who had used the information to
try to destroy her? She stopped in her trajectory towards Quito and froze at
the thought. What was she thinking? Thank God she hadn’t gotten all the way to
his lap.
His lap?
Why was she thinking about his lap? She, an adult, was considering
sitting on a lap? Imagine, hard-working, adult Aracely Martinez sitting on
anyone’s lap, even at Christmas. Even if he did call her Miss Awesome Socks and
have a nice, smooth, sexy voice. Ack! Sexy? No way. No way. No … but his eyes
were so mischievous.
Santa saw her and waved. She smiled, waved back, and then ran, well,
slowly swam through a vast sea of screaming children, skinny teenagers, and
over-spent mothers, back to the bench and Alice’s seated form.
“Let’s go, Alice.” Aracely tugged on Alice’s coat sleeve.
Alice handed Aracely a hot tea in a Starbucks cup. “Sit down, Miss
Pneumonia. You need a drink before we head home. Well, I do.”
Aracely dropped onto the bench. “Please. I want to go home now. I don’t
feel well.”
***
Alice Chalmers turned and examined Aracely’s face. “Uh-oh. Bright eyes,
pink cheeks. You look feverish. Let me gather my stuff.”
They started off weaving their way through the shoppers down the mall
toward the car, but suddenly a nearly-Paco Rabanne breeze and a lot of noise
churned up behind them, and Santa himself clunked up in his too-big boots to
park himself in front of them. Alice stopped in her tracks as she recognized
Quito Barzaga under Santa’s fat tummy, which was askew and sagging over his
belt. The long, fuzzy, red coat sleeves enveloped Quito’s hands completely.
Alice smothered a laugh.
“Señorita Awesome Socks!” he said to Aracely. Mumbling
through his white beard, he tried to straighten his fur-trimmed cap. “And Ms.
Chalmers! How are you?”
“Good.” Alice bit her lip, but gave up and laughed out loud.
Aracely narrowed her eyes at the baggy Santa. “How can you be Santa?
You’re too young and too small.”
Quito looked wounded. “I’m not small! I have muscles.” He held up his
arms to flex them, dropping the too-long Santa pant legs, which bagged in red
mountains around his ankles.
The crowd of shoppers gathering around them laughed hysterically.
“Aracely. I gotta get back to work. Can I see you later?” he begged,
grabbing his pants up again.
“You told everyone my secret,” she hissed, deathly aware of being the
center of attention in a huge shopping mall and of having a conversation that
could get her noticed by authorities and deported.
He puffed up taller. “I did not.”
“Like hell.” Aracely stalked away.
Alice quickly wrote something on a slip of paper and handed it to
Quito. “Quito. Nice to see you. This is my address. Come over soon, Quito.
Today, if you have time. This girl has pneumonia, and she’s lost both her jobs.
She needs a friend.” Then she turned and sprinted after Aracely.
Quito called to their
retreating forms, “‘Pneumollia’? Is
that bad? Cancer? Hey, Aracely, come back! You know I’m your number one Stan
Sophia Rose's Review:
Pairing a weighty and complicated subject with some holiday
time mayhem made for a colorful and quirky dose of chick lit by a new to me
author.
Deck the Malls with Purple Peacocks is the second of the
Alice Chronicles, but I had no trouble jumping in at this point to the
series. I could tell that Alice and her
friends had been involved in a crazy scheme a time or two in the past, but this
was a standalone story.
The story starts out by introducing Arelys. She is a hardworking and dream-filled Mexican
gal who has a huge dangerous secret about her legal status in the country. Everything goes bad for her when her slimy
shift supervisor discovers her illegal status and uses it to blackmail her for
his silence. She's at the end of her
rope trying to meet his demands when a former college teacher of hers, Alice
and some of Alice's friends learn of her plight and come to her rescue in crazy,
over the top plots and capers.
The author didn't shy away from approaching the touchy and
very complicated issue of illegal immigration and the difficulties for some to
gain citizenship or the darker side of how people exploit the illegals in the
country. It was definitely educational
for me. But, it wasn't a completely
downer book because the holiday shopping season in all its garish splendor
through the eyes of a Mexican and a Cuban cracked me up. And, even better, the author took a threesome
of middle aged female college professors who are outrageous and determined to
help Arelys even if it means taking on the slimeballs who took advantage of
her. It was zany, over the top, and very
busy without more than surface level development. It got to where my head was spinning after a
while. I just barely kept hold of the
plot thread even while it had me laughing at the heavy dose of humor infused
into the story and my enjoyment of Alice and her friends' adventures.
All in all, it was moderately engaging and a fun romp that
chick lit fans who want a warm holiday comedy should give a try.
My thanks to the author and Lola's Blog Tours for the
opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Author Bio:
Amy Gettinger has 2 grown sons, 2 tyrannical mini-poodles, and a
long-suffering husband. She’s pretty good at teaching ESL to adults, and
writes jazz chants and poems focusing on pertinent grammar points. Currently,
she is writing and producing Reader’s Theater plays in a local assisted living
with nonagenarians as the readers. She loves to decorate with sunflowers
and watch British TV shows and swim like a mermaid. She also
loves the sound of children in the pool next door and the cacophony of crows,
parrots, owls, and hummingbirds in and around her garden. She loves playing
board games and eating chocolate. Let’s not forget the chocolate. She writes
and laughs at Facebook in the shade of some very noisy hundred-year-old
eucalyptus trees in Orange County, CA. She has written 2 novels, and has
published both Roll
with the Punches and Alice in Monologue Land on
Amazon for Kindle, as well as a collection of short stories set in the world of
Alice in Monologue Land
called Kiss My Sweet Skull.
Sophia’s Bio:
Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking,
book reviewing, and gardening. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man
and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region
of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.
Sophia’s Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816
Not really my kind of book but I'm glad you had a good time with it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, not generally mine either, but it caught my eye and I was in the mood for something different. Glad I grabbed it because I ended up having a good time.
DeleteAwe it sounds really good Sophia Rose right up my alley. Thanks for sharing your take on it
ReplyDeleteSure thing! It's not my usual read, but it turned out to be one I was glad I got the chance to read. :)
DeleteLol, oh those titles
ReplyDeleteYep, cracked me up, too. Had to read it after I saw that. :)
Delete