Making Arrangements - Softcover

Robinson, Ferris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965648117 ISBN 13: 9780965648110

Publisher: Peach Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

The small town of Barrington, with its picturesque cottages, breathtaking gardens and friendly neighbors, is very appealing. Things are going swimmingly for Lang Eldridge, an unlikely cancer survivor who is marking the one-year anniversary of her “death sentence.” She spent her supposed final year of life making sure her beloved husband, Jack, could survive without her. A caramel cake is in the freezer for his first birthday without her and love letters for every occasion are carefully written and tied with a pink ribbon. But just as she is packing for their celebratory trip, Jack drops dead on the tennis court. Devastated and reeling from shock, Lang realizes all of her perfect arrangements are in utter disarray. A mute stray dog posts itself on her front porch and a grammar-butchering fashion plate, A.J. Cole, practically takes up residence, regularly revealing too much information to loner Lang. Her son, Teddy, a tennis has-been, has his own ideas of how she should manage her life, and they don’t include cavorting about with a veterinarian who resembles Wimpy. Lillian, Lang’s long-lost mother, reappears and is as obnoxious as ever, waving to the pews at Jack’s funeral like she is Miss America. Lang’s granddaughter, Katie D, is a consistent bright spot, and Lang can’t imagine her life without her. As she realizes Jack wasn’t exactly the person she thought he was, she discovers a secret he carried to his grave could ruin her life. If she lets it. Compared to the Mitford Years by Jan Karon and Good Grief by Lolly Winston, Making Arrangements features “rich sassy writing with characters you’ll want to slap.” It is a story of family life and friendship, about mothers of both grown and young children, and how strangers (even the most irritating) can evolve into sisters. Relationships of all sorts can bloom into love (at any age) and the love between family, between mothers and children, grandparents and grandchildren, and sisters, is worth sustaining.

About this title

About the Author

Ferris Robinson lives in a beautiful part of East Tennessee with her husband and two dogs. The mother of three grown sons, she delights in the fact that her dogs obey her - more or less. A former columnist for the Chattanooga Free Press, she is now the editor of the Lookout Mountain Mirror and the Signal Mountain Mirror. Her work has been published numerous times in The Christian Science Monitor and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She is a columnist at chattanoogan.com. The author of several cookbooks, including Never Trust a Hungry Cook, which she wrote in college, Simplify Supper and the Gorgeless Gourmet's Cookbook, Ferris was featured on the cover of Woman's World magazine. Promoting her easy but healthy recipes, she made numerous television appearances and sold 10,000 copies of the Gorgeless Gourmet's Cookbook, pre-Internet. Subscribers from every state subscribed to her newsletter, The Gorgeless Gourmet's Newsletter. She also wrote Dogs and Love - Sixteen Stories of Fidelity, and Authentic Log Homes, featuring hand-hewn log homes. "Making Arrangements" is her first novel.

Review

If you are looking for a mixture of heartbreak and humor, delve into Ferris Robinson's Making Arrangements, a beautifully written family drama sprinkled with scenes of hilarity. Every character is fully developed, and by the end of the book I knew I was going to miss these newfound friends the author had created. The main character, Lang, is battling cancer and has written letters to her husband to be read on holidays, birthdays and anniversaries after her death, but nothing works out as she had planned. She unearths secrets, battles and betrayals, and wonders if she can ever find forgiveness. When I came to the end of the book I found myself in tears, hurting and rejoicing at the same time.Alice Smith, author of Rhythm of Stillness and A Place Where Secret Shadows Shine

Author Robinson knows how to make things complicated, and in this case, that's a good thing. The main character, Lang, is having trouble coming to terms with her impending demise when something even worse happens. A series of messy complications follows one right after the other. Will she work herself out of the quagmire of health, financial, and family problems? And what will happen to her sweet grand daughter? Robinson kept me guessing, and I could not put this one down.Janie Dempsey Watts, author of Moon Over Taylor's Ridge and Return to Taylor's Crossing

About this edition

• Publisher: Peach Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0965648117
• ISBN 13: 9780965648110
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 342