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Michael Lee West

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Mermaids in the Basement: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Michael Lee West (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.0 83 ratings

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Reeling from the loss of her mother, plagued with a bad case of writer's block (and don't even talk about those extra twenty pounds), Renata DeChavannes feels as though everything is just plain wrong. And that was before the tabloids caught her sweetheart, filmmaker Ferg Lauderdale, sharing an intimate squeeze with Hollywood's hottest young tamale.

But the granddaughter of the formidable Honora DeChavannes possesses more hell than belle in her backbone—and she's about to reclaim it. Heading south to Honora's home on the Gulf Coast, Renata is determined to stop feeling like a wilted gardenia and emerge as the unstoppable kudzu her beloved grandmother proudly proclaimed she would be. But for that to happen Renata's got to face some not-so-genteel ghosts from her past, discover the truth about the mother she desperately misses, and make peace with the first man who abandoned her and broke her heart: her handsome and distant father.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ripe with Southern charm and sultry atmosphere, West's diverting and funny latest unravels the tangled gossamer web of an eccentric extended Southern family. At the heart of the novel is Renata DeChavannes, who has a pretty full plate: a tabloid ran a story about her longtime film director boyfriend's possible on-set fling with an actress; her mother and step-father died in a plane crash five months ago; her father is about to marry his fourth wife (a squeaky-voiced young thang named Joie); and she's just found a letter written by her mother instructing her to ferret out her mother's dirty secrets. So Renata heads to her Gulf Coast Alabama hometown, where her indomitable grandmother Honora DeChavannes; steadfast former nanny Gladys Boudreax; and Honora's longtime friend and former actress, Isabella D'Agostina McGeehee, live. The story flies by, loaded with grand parties, sumptuous Southern meals, multiple affairs and harrowing calamities. West's storytelling talent shines when she's following around the fiery belles, though she has trouble getting convincingly into the head of Renata's father, Louie, and the profusion of subplots can feel overwhelming. On the whole, it's a joyride, if a sometimes bumpy one. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Nominated for the 2009 SIBA Book Award
Library Journal *Starred Review"

West has a knack for realistic and engaging characters. This charming tale will keep readers wanting to know more about the inhabitants of Point Clear.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000XPNV58
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Reprint edition (October 13, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1308 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 322 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,052,835 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,851 in Women's Literary Fiction
- #6,233 in Mothers & Children Fiction
- #17,079 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.0 83 ratings

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Michael Lee West

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Michael Lee West grew up on the Gulf Coast with a wild tribe of Southern cooks. She is the author of nine books, including Crazy Ladies, Gone With a Handsomer Man, and A Teeny Bit of Trouble.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

83 global ratings

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E. Ervin

Good southern book

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2015

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Michael Lee West is a very good author. This book is very good, too. I like the southern girl going home to find herself aspect of the book. It has nice characters, strong women who aren't wimpy. I like that. The setting pleases me but then again, I like most books about the south. The ending is a happy one and I don't know what else you could want in a good book. It was one that I finished in one day.

One person found this helpful

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Michelle Boytim

Learning to let go of fear and swim through life

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2011

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Renata is working on a troublesome screenplay and dealing with the loss of her mother and stepfather in a plane crash. When she sees a picture of her sweetheart, Ferg, in a tabloid, apparently in a whirlwind romance with the latest hot Hollywood actress, while shopping for a sweater for him, she loses it. After several embarrassing Fed Ex revenge packages go out, she retreats to her grandmother's home to find out the secrets that her mother has left regarding her past. Joined with Honora (her father's mother) is the former starlet neighbor and her family's nurse/housekeeper. She also must deal with her father's new love who seems to be a vapid young woman. Renata must come to terms with her mother's troubled upbringing, and her own bumpy past to find out why she is the person she is and come to terms with her life and to see if she can learn to let go and move forward. The story changes perspective in each chapter so it does take a bit to keep track of the character narrating, but it flows well and is an interesting story.

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Linda O. Webb

Mermaids in the Basement

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2015

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I accidentally got hooked on this author's work when someone left Crazy Women in my bathroom one night.I was hooked because she tells her stories in each individual'sI experiences. I said who ever left that first book really got me in trouble (I don't normally read fiction) because this is the 3rd book from her that I am reading.. It feels like a little vacation

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Amy D.

Why did I order this?

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2008

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After reading about half of this book, I have returned here to re-read what in the world I might have found here that convinced me to buy this book. And I bought it without even downloading a sample first (to my Kindle). Another review mentions mistakes that an editor should have caught - but it's more than that. The mistakes are the kind that reveal huge problems in the whole construction of a story about people that are very difficult to relate to.

As a plot vehicle (I guess), the author has conjured up an uncle's birthday party in another state that the whole family flies off to attend. One chapter begins telling us that the birthday party is in the evening, and goes on to describe what the family does in the mean time. Then the first sentence 2 paragraphs later tells us it is now 2 hours before the "rehearsal dinner". The writer obviously started to make this plot vehicle a wedding, and then decided it should be a birthday party (because there's already a wedding elsewhere in the book - another tortured plot scheme). Wow. Forget an actual professional editor - did the author even have someone else - anyone else - read through the book first?

The characters are conveniently ultra rich people, and the conflict in the piece seems to revolve around past family infidelity (a shock to the tender psyche of the 30-something protagonist) and whether the main character's famous boyfriend is having an affair with the star one of his movies. I'm not sure of much more than that because I really don't care enough to continue reading.

I wish I'd read the reviews more closely.

16 people found this helpful

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Amy Metz

Favorite southern writer

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2014

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This book is by Michael Lee West, so it's got to be good. Mermaids is different from Ms. West's cozy mystery series but equally as good. This book delves into family secrets and family skeletons, and I loved the twists and turns, characters, and unique plot. Michael Lee West is now my favorite southern writer.

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Donna Garrison

Tastes great, less filling.

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2012

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I enjoyed Mermaids in the Basement, as I would enjoy a Hallmark movie or a movie of the week. It was satisfying, fun to read and entertaining, yet it left me wanting more. I found it lightweight and somewhat predictable, which is not necessarily bad. It reminded me a lot of the Ya Ya Sisterhood book from years ago. The characters were two dimensional, but still fun to spend time with. The story, attention to detail and amazing location descriptions made it a page turner and fun to get back to... just not the normal "heavy" fare that my book club chooses.

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Jan

A Lovely Captivating Southern Tale

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2010

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I enjoyed this book from the first page to the last. I will be looking for more by this author. She writes with a clear voice that spoke to me.

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2017