The Wedding Pearls
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Hello, everyone at Romance Junkies! Thank you so much for inviting me to kick off my boots and visit with y’all about The Wedding Pearls for a while.
I loved writing this book. Frankie and Ivy were so lively and funny. It was a pure delight to have those old gals living in my head all that time. They kept me entertained from the time they stepped into the pages of the books. There are many funny scenes in the book and I’d love to share a couple with you.
I loved the day that the trip starts and Frankie assigns seats in the Cadillac. (FYI, Blister is the name of the oxygen tank that Ivy takes every where with her.)
She (Tessa) started to crawl into the backseat, but Frankie laid a hand on her shoulder. “Darlin’, this is my retirement trip so I call the shots. Ivy and Blister get to sit behind Branch, then Melody in the middle and me on this side. You are sitting in the middle of the front seat with Lola on the passenger’s side. That’s our seat assignments for the whole trip. And Tessa, I can’t tell you how glad I am that you are along for this trip. It means the world to me. It’ll give us time to really get to know one another.”
“Why can’t I, like, sit in the front seat? I hate riding in the backseat,” Melody said.
“Do you upchuck when you ride in the back?” Ivy asked.
“No, I just don’t like it,” Melody answered.
“Then suck it up, buttercup!” Ivy popped her on the fanny as she passed on her way to the other side of the car. “Your job is to take care of me and Blister. It’s not a vacation for you.”
Tessa asked as she scooted across the wide bench leather seat to the middle to sit between Lola and Branch. “So the oxygen tank is Blister. Does the car have a name, too?”
“Oh, yes,” Lola answered as she buckled her seat belt.
Frankie reached up and touched Lola on the shoulder. “I can hear you. Haven’t you learned anything in your forty-eight years, girl? I have the hearing of a bat and the memory of an elephant and I’ve got eyes in the back of my head. Don’t never try to put anything over on me. This baby girl is named Mollybedamned.”
Tessa dug between the seats and found the end of the belt. “As in first name Molly, second name Bee, and last name Damned?”
“No, as in all one name,” Frankie said.
“It comes from an old western movie we watched years ago. You probably never heard of it,” Ivy said. “Hey, Frankie, we need to watch that on this trip.”
And then there is the night that Frankie and Ivy dress up in their finery and diamonds and go to the casino over across the Red River into Oklahoma. While they are gone Melody and Tessa have a long visit and then they, along with Lola and Branch, curl up on one bed in the hotel room and watch Steel Magnolias. This is what happens when Frankie and Ivy return.
“What the hell?” Ivy and Frankie both said at the same time when they pushed their way into the room.
“What is going on in here? Did her mama die?” Ivy asked.
“We watched Steel Magnolias with her. She’d never seen it and it ended about five minutes ago.” Branch slid off the bed. “Tessa is trying to console her and Lola is trying to help her get through the tears with sugar.”
“Poor baby,” Ivy said. “I cried the first time I watched that movie, too.”
Tessa glanced at the clock. “It’s not midnight.”
Frankie set about removing her rings and putting them in a pouch to lock up in the hotel safe. “They threw us out.”
“Mama, for God’s sake, were you counting cards?” Lola gasped.
“I don’t use anything other than my fingers and toes, so what’s wrong with that?” Frankie asked. “Horace didn’t mind a bit when I handed him a thousand-dollar tip.”
Melody’s hands came away from her eyes. “Horace? Who is that?”
“Our limo driver and bodyguard,” Ivy said.
“A thousand-dollar tip?” Tessa’s head reeled at that. “How much did you win?”
“I won ten but Frankie won forty before they told us we had to leave. But when they caught us we’d only won about five each that round so that’s all we had to give back,” Ivy said.
“Thousand?” Tessa gasped.
“Well, honey, we wouldn’t have given Horace a thousand-dollar tip if it had been ten and forty dollars.” Ivy laughed.
“Holy shit, Aunt Ivy! Does that mean I can really go shopping tomorrow then?” Melody squealed.
Writing humor is as natural for me as breathing but The Wedding Pearls has some very poignant moments that I’m sure you’ll love as much as the giggles. And reading the journal where Tessa records her inner feelings on the trip—well, I hope that you truly feel every emotion that she does.
So what emotion do you like to feel when you read a book?
***
Book Information
Book Title: The Wedding Pearls
Author: Carolyn Brown
Release Date: December 15, 2015
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Summary
Tessa Wilson’s life is all over the map. She may be clumsy, but this time she’s stumbled into a pickle by choice, not by accident. She’s agreed to take a month-long trip around Texas jammed into a ’59 Cadillac with a drama-loving teenager, two elderly spitfires, and—oh, yes—her biological mama who gave her away at birth. And the ride gets even crazier when hot-as-sin cowboy Branch Thomas crosses into her lane. They don’t call him the sexiest man in the Lone Star State for nothin’.
As the miles pass and sparks fly between Tessa and Branch, her grandmother starts dropping hints about family wedding traditions. And as Tessa discovers the power of her budding friendships and the unbreakable strength of her newfound family of strong Texas women, she wonders if she’s also on the road to the biggest adventure of all: true love.
Author Biography
Carolyn Brown is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, as well as a RITA finalist. She has written several beloved and popular romance titles, ranging from historical to contemporary to cowboy-themed. She and her husband live in Davis, Oklahoma. They have three grown children, and enough grandchildren to keep them young.
Social Media Links
Website: http://carolynlbrown.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Carolyn-Brown-198727816879253/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13554.Carolyn_Brown
