Author Guest Post
AND IT ALL STARTED WITH A BUS TRIP
I wanted to wow her with another quirky tale and a great original title, so I pitched a story I’d started several years ago about two elderly spinster sisters called A Peach of a Pair. The idea for the story came from my great great aunt who traveled from the bottom of southwest Georgia to Arkansas to see a faith healer in the late 1940’s. Women didn’t travel alone, and there weren’t a lot of women on the buses. So, to be on the safe side, she rode the whole way to Little Rock with her arms crossed and a hatpin under each arm. If a man got too close to her or fell asleep and his head flopped onto her shoulder, she’d jab him with the pin. Unfortunately, when she got to her destination, she found out the faith healer had been run out of the state, and she got back on the bus and went home.
While the hatpin incident isn’t in A Peach of a Pair, the idea of traveling a great distance for healing is. I loved the idea of setting out on an arduous journey full of hope and faith that there is healing on the other end. That’s what happens to poor Lurleen, the eldest sister, who is dying of congestive heart failure, but not because she wants to go on this trip. Her sister Emily, took something from her when they were barely twenty.
As Emily says, “What happened to Teddy was Emily’s fault, and she’d paid for it a thousand times over, losing her mother to a broken heart. And the seven years Lurleen lived in the same house as Emily but didn’t speak to her, didn’t take anything from her hand. The shunning wasn’t a religious edict. Goodness no, they were raised Presbyterian. But Lurleen had taken right to the practice. Even with the gravity of events, Emily was sure it couldn’t last, but she’d been wrong.” Even fifty years later, Emily wants to right the scales so badly, she badgers poor Lurleen into getting on a Greyhound bus and riding all the way from Camden, South Carolina to Palestine, Texas to see a faith healer.
My editor loved the title, loved the story so much, I thought she would buy it on the spot, but then she said, “Where’s your young protagonist?” The truth is, when you publish you’re put into a box. All authors are because it’s easier for publishers to sell us that way. We can’t just be storytellers, which is what I wanted to be. I was so excited about my pitch to her, I’d forgotten Penguin put me in the sweet Southern box complete with a young protagonist.
So I did what every author does; I made her up on the fly. “Uh. Her name is Nettie Gilbert and she’s a ‘Bama belle in her last semester at Columbia College, and, uh, she receives an invitation to her baby sister’s wedding back home. BUT her own fiancé is the groom. So she quits school and goes to work for two old maids in Camden, South Carolina and the bus trip for healing ensues.”
The interesting thing about this is, in the original version of the story, Nettie was a young girl on the bus, but she was also a plot device to hear the sister’s stories, to understand the riff, and their complex sisterhood. When I started to write, I was a little concerned that Nettie would be overpowered by Emily and Lurleen’s great big voices, but it turned out Nettie held her own and then some, even though Emily and Lurleen do hijack the story from time to time. But the story worked and turned out to be an examination of an indestructible sisterhood and a wild ride to forgiveness.
About The Author
Almost everything she learned about writing, she learned from her grandpa, an oral storyteller, who was a master teacher of pacing and sensory detail. He held court under an old mimosa tree on the family farm, and people used to come from all around to hear him tell stories about growing up in rural Georgia and share his unique take on the world.
As a stay-at-home mom, Kim started writing, grabbing snip-its of time in the car rider line or on the bleachers at swim practice. After her kids left the nest, she started submitting her work, sold her first novel at 53, and has been writing like crazy ever since.
Thanks to the lessons she learned under that mimosa tree, her books are well reviewed and, according to RT Book Reviews, feel like they’re being told across a kitchen table. She is the author of A Peach of a Pair, Palmetto Moon and The Wisdom of Hair from Berkley/NAL/Penguin; Flirting with Forever, She’s the One, Just in Time for Christmas, Steal Me, Cowboy and Sweet Home Carolina from Tule. While her heart is always in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, she lives in Charlotte and has a heart for hairstylist, librarians, and book junkies like herself.
Her latest book is the southern women’s fiction, A Peach of a Pair.
Author Website
Goodreads
Book Review
A Peach of a Pair by Kim Boykin
Publisher: Berkley / Penguin Group
Publication Date: August 4, 2015
Format: Paperback - 304 pages
Kindle - 784 KB
Nook - 609 KB
ISBN: 978-0425281994
ASIN: B00OQS4DI2
Genre: Southern Women's Fiction
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Discuss the book at PUYB Virtual Book Club on Goodreads
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Pump Up Your Book.
Book Description:
April, 1953. Nettie Gilbert has cherished her time studying to be a music teacher at Columbia College in South Carolina, but as graduation approaches, she can’t wait to return to her family and her childhood sweetheart, Brooks, in Alabama. But just days before her senior recital, she gets a letter from her mama telling her that Brooks is getting married . . . to her own sister.
Devastated, Nettie drops out of school and takes a job as live-in help for two old-maid sisters, Emily and Lurleen Eldridge. Emily is fiercely protective of the ailing Lurleen, but their sisterhood has weathered many storms. And as Nettie learns more about their lives on a trip to see a faith healer halfway across the country, she’ll discover that love and forgiveness will one day lead her home.
Book Excerpt Teaser:
Book Excerpt:
Dear
Nettie,
It might
seem cruel to send this letter along with a proper invitation, but I couldn’t
bring myself to call you, and I wasn’t given much notice regarding this matter.
I also know you well enough to know you would have to see the invitation to
truly believe it. Although I do regret not having enough time to have them
engraved.
I’m sorry to
be the one to give you the news about Brooks and Sissy. I love you, Nettie, and
I love your sister. I’m not condoning her behavior or the fact that she is in
the family way, but you are blood. You are sisters. No man can break that bond,
not even Brooks.
There’s money
and a bus ticket paper-clipped to the invitation. I’ve checked the schedules.
You should be able to leave Columbia
But the milk
has been spilled, Nettie. Come home and stand up with your sister. She needs
you. She’s a wreck, and it makes me worry about the baby.
Just come
home.
Love,
Mother
My Book Review:
A Peach of a Pair is a captivating story of the strength of sisterly bonds, family, friendship, self-discovery, love and forgiveness.
I am a huge fan of Southern Women's Fiction, and in A Peach of a Pair, author Kim Boykin weaves a thoroughly enjoyable tale that fulfilled all of my expectations. It is a delightful tale filled with plenty of Southern charm and sass that easily draws the reader into the engaging story of a young woman's quest to heal and forgive with the help of a pair of sassy elderly sisters.
Set in the South in 1953 and written in the first person narrative, Nettie Gilbert takes the reader along for the ride on her emotional journey of self-discovery. The reader meets Nettie in the southern town of Columbia, South Carolina, where she is eight weeks away from graduating from Columbia College with a degree in music, and is eagerly waiting to return home to Satsuma, Alabama. Nettie's world is turned upside down when she receives a letter from her mother informing her of the unexpected wedding of her younger sister Jemma Renee to Nettie's childhood sweetheart Brooks Carter. To add insult to injury, her mother included their wedding invitation in the letter! Heartbroken and feeling betrayed by her sister and ex-boyfriend, Nettie leaves college before graduation and accepts a live-in caregiver position with the elderly Eldridge sisters (Emily and Lurleen) in Camden, South Carolina. The elderly "peach of a pair" Eldridge sisters will help redefine, shape, and change Nettie's life in a profound way.
A Peach of a Pair is a beautifully written and captivating story that engages the reader to follow along as Nettie's journey leads her on a path of self discovery and healing forgiveness. Author Kim Boykin weaves a poignant tale of the complexities of sisterly and family bonds that flows smoothly, and alternates between the first person narrative of Nettie, with the third person narratives of Emily, Lurleen, and Dr. Remmy Wilkes. I couldn't help but get swept away and lose myself in the unfolding of the multi-layered story. I absolutely loved how both the author parallels the different generational but very similar stories of the complexity of sisterly bonds between Nettie and Jemma with Emily and Lurleen, while adding in the blossoming of a special friendship/relationship with Remmy. Embarking on a quirky adventure with these sassy elderly sisters, Nettie discovers that the special sisterly bond is a strong one that can be preserved, even after a heartbreaking betrayal, and that the road to love and forgiveness will ultimately lead you back home.
Author Kim Boykin weaves a delightful tale full of humor, emotion, drama, and southern sassiness intertwined with a sweet poignancy that easily keeps the reader engaged and turning the pages. I absolutely loved the fiesty Eldridge sisters, they reminded me of the Baldwin sisters from the television show, The Waltons. As Nettie and the sisters embark on their faith healing adventure, Nettie learns life lessons that will bring forgiveness, healing, and a second chance at finding love.
With a quirky cast of characters; witty dialogue and interactions; a richly descriptive setting; and a storyline that delves into the complexities of family, friendships, love and life; A Peach of a Pair is a touching southern women's fiction tale that will leave a smile on your face.
RATING: 5 STARS
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