Age Group: Adult
Genre: Women’s fiction
Release Date: February 15, 2013
Buy Links:
Amazon
Book Description:
Starting over is hard. And sometimes, you have to burn a few bridges to do it.
Whitney Brown is average--average height, weight, and personality--but she wants to be someone new. To kick-start her rebirth, she wears formal mourning, a black veil and vintage dress, to a wedding in her hometown, Woods Cross, a community that treasures family values. Is it an attack on marriage or has she just gone bonkers?
Emboldened but lacking a plan, she forces her foot in the door of a radio station in Sundown. A small metropolis of nearly 150,000, Sundown is a notch of urban flair along the Midwest's Bible Belt.
Getting in proves to be the easy part and the anonymity of being a DJ suits her well. But off air (and in person), Whitney must stand up to Sadi, an angry feminist and the bane of her college years while an old friendship with her former roommate, Leah, devolves around a guy.
It's 2002 and the Midwest radio scene is changing. Just as Whitney hits her groove, the radio station undergoes its own identity crisis. But what rocks Whitney to her core is the moment the condom breaks. Her abstinence only background leaves her embarrassed and facing a difficult choice.
This book was truly a pleasant surprise to me. I was immediately drawn into the novel by the main character, Whitney, and able to relate to her to a big degree. I too, was raised in a small town in the mid-west, and I could relate to her ‘average’ ness, and to her desire to rise above it, start over and create a new life for herself. That as a theme, undoubtedly in my mind, speaks to a great deal many readers who struggle with those same issues.
When I started reading, I felt for Whitney when she was dealing with Sadi and Leah because the interactions were so realistic. This is not a novel of impossibilities. This is a realistic, relatable novel. She has a history with both of these women; Leah, whom she considers a friend though Leah is usually too buried in guy drama to be bothered with Whitney unless she needs something; and Sadi—Leah’s cousin who is the total opposite of Leah. Rather than having to be in a relationship all the time, she’s constantly pushing away the men in her life.
