Mean Season

Mean Season by Heather Cochran released on Aug 25, 2004 is available now for purchase.

The old adage "be careful what you wish for" gets new life in Cochran's sweet, funny debut. Life in tiny Pinecob, W.Va., takes a turn for the wacky when Hollywood heartthrob Joshua Reed, nailed with another DUI, is forced to spend 90 days of house arrest in the home of a local fan. Leanne Gitlin, 25, has loved Joshua since she was 15 and led his fan club for eight years; such relative proximity to glamour makes her stand out in town (where she now works in the county clerk's office) and distracts from the fact that she's never strayed from home and is deeply committed to being the family caretaker, especially for her handicapped brother, Beau Ray. Joshua, with a court-mandated ankle sensor, takes up residence in the room of Leanne's beloved older brother, Vince, who abandoned Pinecob for greener pastures. For the Gitlins, this means TV cameras, drunken fans undressing on their lawn and an overdose of Joshua's bad attitude. In the midst of all this, wise, strong-willed Leanne slowly faces big life choices and long-hidden feelings for old friend Max, who's nursing some new big dreams of his own. The plot's a bit far-fetched, but that's just part of the fun in this poignant, gently comic story about growing up and moving on.
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Leanne Gitlin swooned the first time she saw handsome Joshua Reed on General Hospital, and a simple autographed photo request to his publicist, Judy, lands Leanne in the position of running his fan club. It's no big deal until Judy calls to tell Leanne that Joshua will be filming a movie near her hometown of Pinecob, West Virginia. Joshua turns out to be a major jerk and manages to get himself into a minor accident while driving drunk. After Judy pleads his case, the judge sentences him to house arrest rather than jail, but the house he'll be staying at is Leanne's. Predictably, Joshua is a wretched houseguest, bringing out all of Leanne's insecurities about having never attended college or left Pinecob. But she is also starting to think more about actually doing something about her longtime crush on her older brother's friend, who is now a manager at the local grocery store. Cochran's is a warm, engaging, often funny debut. Kristine Huntley
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