Jodi Thomas – Twisted Creek

A stand alone novel, published April 1, 2008.
Genre: contemporary romance
Cover: relaxing



Bad luck has been biting at Allie Daniel's heels all her life, so when she inherits a tiny café in a small Texas lake community she's sure there must be a catch. But Allie brings her grandmother along, and the café gives Nana a chance to do what she loves best-cook. As Allie settles in and tries to make the best of what surely must be a mistake in an old man’s will, the people of the lake drop by. Lonely folk discover there’s always a table available, with down-home food to warm the soul. An old maid, a shy young man, and a drifter who races the moon across the lake slowly become the family Allie never had. When trouble comes, Allie finds that she's not alone anymore - and that, sometimes, the only cure for bad luck is the courage to love.


There was something about this blurb that make me pick it up and put it aside to read from my new collection of 400 books. I have never read Jodi Thomas before, and can’t remember reading any reviews that stayed with me.

It is not a typical book at all, the feeling was so very different. It was told kind of quietly, from two points of view, changing each chapter. But it was compelling from the first page, and I just had to keep reading.
Allie has been living with her grandmother all her life, as her mother abandoned her at the first opportunity for a better life in the city. Allie has no real education, and so they are kind of travelling from town to town after her grandfather died and they had to leave the farm. Finding a job here or there, and hoping for something better around the corner. And when it finally comes in the form of an inheritance from a man she doesn’t know, she is convinced it is all a mistake.
But she packs up their meagre belongings, and they are on their way to Twisted Creek and the ramshackle inn/shop she inherited. And Allie and Nonna make a go at it, especially since people start delivering things that were apparently ordered by the previous owner before he died.

I did like Allie, and how she tried to make a living for herself and her grandmother, and refused to give it up to her mother when she suddenly showed up and tried to take it away from them, like she had at times before.

But this book was seriously different from my usual reading. It was quietly told, and the people that showed up in the book were strange characters, but they somehow fit together and then there was the mysterious stranger who became interested in Allie.
But there is no fun or light banter, no flirting as I am used, no hot love scenes. There is some suspense as a drug ring is operating in the area, and a bit of danger in the end, but it is all just happening. Allie just accepts everything that happens, she does not act passionately, or angry or happy or anything.

And still I really liked this book. And I have not really a clue why. I think I have one more book by this author, and I will try to read it soon to compare the writing style.

7 stars.

© 2015 Reviews by Aurian