boeklogboek: Suzanne Johnson – Christmas in Dogtown

zondag 4 november 2012

Suzanne Johnson – Christmas in Dogtown

A novelette by Suzanne Johnson, published October 15, 2012.
Genre: paranormal romance
Cover: I like it very much

A woman who spent years escaping her rural past learns that Dogtown, Louisiana, hides more family secrets than just the recipe for boudin blanc.
Resa Madere’s on the verge of losing it all. The boyfriend’s gone. The job’s history. Her beloved house is on the brink of foreclosure. She’ll do anything to save it--even spend a long Christmas holiday working in St. James Parish, Louisiana, helping her uncle run the family meat business. But the community of Dogtown, which has been home for seven generations of the Madere and Caillou families, has deep roots and deeper secrets. For Resa, going home is one thing. Getting out might not be so easy.

This is a short story of only 26 pages in .pdf, but I enjoyed it very much. Resa has done whatever she had to to escape the little backwater town she grew up in. She worked hard, got into college and into the advertising world. Sadly, due to Katharina and the recession, she was fired half a year ago. She stands to loose her beloved home, and she has only one choice left at the moment: go back home, and help her uncle in his meat business. He thought her how to make the sausages (boudin) that are so popular as a teenager, and as he is sick, he needs her help in the busiest time of year.
Why does her whole family keep pushing her in the way of Chandler Caiou, like he was meant for her since birth? Her mother even has pictures of them sleeping together in a crib. So he has moved back to Dogtown a few months ago, why would she be interested? Even though her own love life in New Orleans went down the drain when she lost her job, doesn’t mean she wants to hook up with someone in Dogtown.
Still, when he knocks on the door of her temporarily trailer home, her heart skips a beat when she sees him, all grown up and masculine. Bringing her gifts for the meat business (very scary fish!). And asking her out to next Saterday’s dance … why did she accept? She knows it will only make the tongues in this town wag all the harder.

I really enjoyed Resa, and could understand where she is coming from, wanting something better for herself than living in the swamp, having a career and a home of her own. Still, she felt at home when she came back for three weeks, and she has missed the life around the river and the swamp. Although she could do without the freak hunting accidents that kill most people around here.
Chandler is a quiet man, not much is told about him, but he came back to live here, and he seems sad when she tells him she will go back to her life in New Orleans. Does he really love her, or does he give in to the pressure from their families?
The paranormal angle in this story really surprised me. I did not expect something like this, but I enjoyed it. Still, a few paragraphs more of Resa to come to terms with it all, to make me believe she wants this life after all, would have been nice. Now the ending was a bit abrupt to me.

8 stars