The Cherry Cola Book Club. Ashton Lee. 2013. Kensington. 272 pages. [Source: Library]If you like your books cute and quirky, then The Cherry Cola Book Club might work for you. It has a cute premise. A young librarian, Maura Beth Mayhew, learns that her job is in danger. The city council want to close down the library because there are only a small handful of people using it. (Probably less than ten people a week.) So Maura Beth Mayhew decides to do something to turn the situation around. She's been given six months or so to make a difference with her library. Fortunately, there's a new comer in town who offers a suggestion and the necessary funds to make that suggestion a reality. She used to be part of a book club. She'd be willing to help start one here. She'd be willing to buy what it takes to make the club meetings a success. Between the two of them, they find five or six people to join the reading club. The book focuses on their first two meetings. The first in which they 'discuss' Gone With The Wind, and the second in which they 'discuss' To Kill A Mockingbird.
Readers meet plenty of quirky small town characters. Do they truly get to know them beyond the surface? I'm not sure they do. The characters all felt as substantive as the cardboard cutouts of the movie stars they buy to decorate for club meetings. What we do see of the characters is interesting enough I suppose. It's just there isn't enough to make the book feel genuinely satisfying. (The dialogue didn't feel quite right, quite natural.) The story is predictable and pleasant. Readers know just what to expect from the start: a cozy, quirky, cutesy read about small-town Southern life.
I was not wowed by this one. It's a pleasant enough read, however.
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