Friday, October 28, 2011

Lone Star Cafe by Lisa Wingate

I love this book - I really do. This is the second book in the Texas Hill Country trilogy. The other books, "Texas Cooking" and "Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner" are both really good too. I will recommend all three, but give you the overview for "Lone Star Cafe."
Laura Draper, a magazine editor from Virginia, gets sent to Texas to take over a failing magazine and turn it in to something spectacular. On her way to work one morning, her assistant calls to tell her the highway is shut down and she has to take a detour. With bad weather and spotty cell service she pulls in to what she believes to be an abandoned parking lot, and that's how she ends up at the Lone Star Cafe, with it's 82-year-old twin owners, and it's coffee that can cure a multitude of ills. Here she meets Graham, the nephew of the twins, and starts dreaming of John Wayne, a sure sign she's falling in love. With her race to the deadline on the magazine, taking care of her elderly father, and her time spent at the Cafe, Laura's in for a whirlwind adventure with the rest of these quirky characters.
I love it. "Nough said. There's no swearing, except for maybe one or two mild words, but they get apologized for for being said in front of a lady. It's not preachy, but does have some scriptural references and lets you get what you want out of that angle. There's no sex, but enough kissing to keep it interesting. I love the twins - they add a fun element, and Graham too (although maybe I just like him because of the name). The only element I don't particularly care for in this book, and the others in the series as well, is that it takes place in about a week's time, and the conflict between Laura and Graham seems like it shouldn't be something that's made that big a deal of with only knowing each other for 5 days. That could just be me, though. It's still conflict, and it works, just doesn't quite seem ... reasonable to me. Overall I give this book 4.75 stars. It's almost perfect, and I would recommend it (and the rest of this series) to anyone.

3 comments:

Misty Moncur said...

Yeah, I love these too. Hate the narrator though. Big Lizard Diner is probably my favorite.

Heather said...

Hmmm...I've never heard of these. I may be taking a trip to the library on Monday! :) Thanks for the review!

Tuleps said...

Heather I think you will like them. They are totally cute. Not much substance and like I said the conflicts in them are a little out of proportion, but they're cute and fun to read. I have read other things by Lisa Wingate and haven't been too impressed but these are good. Let me know what you think. I really like Tru the tractor man in "Texas cooking". Start there. =) Happy reading!