Allwebco Web Templates · Build your own toolbar · Financial Data · Audio, Fonts, Clipart
powered by
bravenet.com
|
|
Book Review BY ALISABETH DOBESH
August 24, 2006 GRINGO GAZETTE
JUST ADD WATER
By JINX SCHWARTZ
"Just Add Water" is a strategically crafted, delightful romp into bilge water, Hermes handkerchiefs, in Jinx Schwartz's "Hetta Coffey" trilogy. Readers fell in love last year with Hetta Coffey and "Jenks" Jenkins in Schwartz's last book, "Troubled Sea". In "Just Add Water", we are whisked back in time to when the characters first met in San Francisco, and we find that "prequels" can be much more fun than "sequels".
The desire begins burning during a never-ending champagne, San Francisco, dock-side brunch where Hetta and her life long best friend Jan see that boats attract men all they need to do is buy one and "they will come".
As the champagne buzz wears off, the boat buying desire is only getting started, as "some of life's major decisions are made while imbibing stars".
Hetta Coffey is pushing40 and still single. She is the epitome of the "b" word: bold, bossy, brassy, breezy and brash." She is a Dame in the truest sense of the word. Courageous and faithful to her friends, family, loves, and in Hetta's case, her dog, we willingly follow her through her hedonistic and sometimes life-threatening trials and tribulations "to find safe refuge for her and her dog. Sanctuary on their ship of dreams".
Hetta's boat buying excursions are accompanied by her inner battle with memories of a failed love affair that not only left her at the altar but cleaned out her bank account as well. The FBI is seeking the scoundrel for murder, and he very well might be stalking Hetta. Armed with Grandma's gun and a key she wears around her neck to remind her to never again fall for the wrong guy, Hetta and Jan and RJ the "yellow lab" imbibe in all that San Francisco has to offer.
Once they finally find, buy and board the yacht, they leave the maddening crowds and city life behind. Hetta remembers quiet, star filled nights with Jan on a three day, two-woman exploration of Baja Sur's Bahia Concepcion.
"Conception Bay still held a tenuous charm by virtue of her lack of amenities such as electricity and water. With the exception of those who felt it necessary to import satellite TV, run generators, and build tennis courts, most residents were hearty souls willing to rough it a little to dwell in paradise."
"The desert's song dog's yips, and the rustle of night creatures were occasionally interspersed by the faint echo of a truck's Jake brakes on Highway1, or the hum of a passing fishing panga's outboard.
The man-made noises reminded us that, as remote as we were, civilization inexorably marched down the peninsula."
These tranquil recollections give Hetta pause to consider if she really purchased the boat to "find men", or is her lifestyle change strengthening her conviction to make that cruise to Baja. Schwartz's writing is caustically funny in a politically incorrect wicked way. Hetta's dog RJ is a racist and she moves him into an Oakland Hills neighborhood, "of which Hetta is a triple minority, a Single White Female." Commiserating about boyfriend problems, Jan tells Hetta, "We are women. Being stupid about men is our job. If we weren't stupid, we wouldn't have anything to do with them." Contemplating her life on board a boat, Hetta quotes Christopher Reeve. "So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."
Hetta summons the will to make her dreams inevitable in "Just Add Water." We cannot wait to see what lies in wait off the Baja coast for our redheaded heroine in the
sequel "Just Add Salt."Order from www.trebelheartbooks.com $14.95
bravenet.com