Review: How Dolly Parton Saved My Life
Jo isn’t finding her new life as a stay at home mom particularly fulfilling, so she decides to open a catering business. When Ellie approaches her about becoming a partner, she can hardly say no – after all Ellie’s from a well-known Atlanta family and she was trained at Le Cordon Bleu. They hire Daisy, a young single mother, to be their pastry chef, and Cate, a 28 year old going through a “quarter-life” crisis to be their designer.
The four women vow to make this business different. They want it to be family friendly with a work environment that welcomes kids. They want the business to be a democracy and vow to always work out their problems. As you might expect with four women and their families, there are some differences. The women and the business face one major obstacle, and if they can’t figure out how to solve it, they just might have to close.
How Dolly Parton Saved My Life by Charlotte Connors is cute book that was just okay for me. I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it, but it’s not a book that will stick with me for very long. Even though I had some things in common with some of the women, I really didn’t relate to them all that much. I felt like there needed to be more character development, but I suspect this is going to be a series, so maybe that will come. I wouldn’t call this book preachy, but there were definite Christian undertones to it, that really didn’t add anything to the story in my opinion. I did really enjoy the Atlanta setting because I knew most of the areas mentioned.
I have to admit that the title and the cover threw me off a little bit. Daisy talked about how a Dolly Parton song affected her life and she quotes Dolly from time to time, but I didn’t think it was enough of a theme to name the book after. I’m not sure what the cover’s about, unless it has something to do with Dolly Parton that I’m not familiar with.
If you’re looking for a cute, light read set in the South, How Dolly Parton Saved My Life just might be the book for you, but it didn’t do that much for me.
I think this might be a fun read. If I’m in the mood for something light I might pick this up. I think the title is cute.
Summed up perfectly. I did like some of Dolly’s cute quotes.
LOL, too funny (the cover), but does not seem like it’s for me.
This book keeps sounding blah…I think I am going to skip it.
Sorry to hear you didn’t like this book. I don’t understand the cover either unless those wigs are meant to be Dolly Parton’s…I suppose there are all sorts of metaphors one could attribute to them but maybe it’s nothing at all!
Not something I would read, but the title and cover are pretty cute!
I was trying to figure out the wig thing while I was reading your review. Hmmm…you’d think that the publisher would have created a more relevant cover. Oh, well, it is attention grabbing!
Cute and light – sounds like it would be a good book to read on a plane. I love the title.
Glad you could finish it. It was too much (not enough?) for me.
I have read other tepid reviews of this book, and don’t really think it’s for me. I am beginning to like women’s fiction, but don’t think that I would like this particular example. Thanks for the honest review, Kathy!
Don’t think this one is for me, but I do like the title (even if it doesn’t really fit with the book).
BTW I have an award for you http://metroreader.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-neighbor-award.html
Have a great day!
I haven’t figured out the purpose of the cover yet either. I think overall, the book could have been so much more than it really was.
How interesting that the cover and title don’t have much to do with the book! Actually, it seems covers often don’t have much to do with a book but you would expect the title would!
Hadn’t heard of this one before. Enjoyed your review. The book cover is catchy.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Sounds like the title was simply a marketing choice. Everyone loves Dolly and knows she’s funny.
I love the title of this. Too bad it didn’t set you on fire, though.
Sounds like a waste of a perfectly good cover.
The title makes me smile. It’s a shame the book doesn’t live up to it.
The only thing I could think of was the wigs that Dolly Parton wears. Or maybe it’s a commentary on changing identities? I haven’t read the book so I wouldn’t know.
I have a feeling I wouldn’t be too crazy about this one either.
It’s a cute title and would draw my attention, primarily ’cause I like Dolly Parton. It doesn’t sound like there’s a lot going on in the book, though.
Sounds like Dolly’s name might be used to sell some books, unless I’m missing the Dolly connection, too.
Looking at the cover and title and then your review, I wouldn’t be able to tell how they relate either.
The title is cute anyway.
I might have picked this up because of the the title alone but it doesn’t really sound like something I would enjoy unfortunately
Thanks for the honest review…I won’t add this to my pile of books TBR…
Most of the reviews i’ve seen of this one have been just so-so and I think I’ll skip it. Thanks for the review!
Sometimes a light hearted fluff read is all we need and this one is definatley a cute one!
The title is a strong one to have if it’s not obvious how it ties in to the book!
I don’t understand why the author had to use this good cover///
I really did like the cover, but the books – not so much.
I’m sure it is cute and I love your honesty. I won’t read it despite a penchant for books set in the South.
Seems that the cover would be all about the wigs Dolly wore but that still doesn’t fit the story. I thought the book was going to have something more significant about Dolly from the title so that kind of bugs me.
I probably wouldn’t rush to read this one but I do love that title!
I was wondering about the title. You would think you’d have to have quite a bit of Dolly to name the book that.
Sorry to hear you didn’t love this one. It doesn’t sound like it’s the type of book for me either.
I liked the title but after reading the review… hmmm will leave it at that. Thanks for the heads up.