Reviewer: Amy Lignor
Title: Little Gale Gumbo
Author: Erika Marks
Publisher: NAL
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-23465-0
Release Date: October 2011
Genre/Sub-genre: Women's Fiction
Year/Setting: 1960s/70s New Orleans and Maine & 2002, Maine
Overall Rating: 4.0
Sexual Content Rating: Subtle/Sensual
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: None/Mild
Violent Content Rating: Minimal/Moderate
Erika's Website/Blog: www.erikamarksauthor.com
Dear Readers:
In this extremely entertaining debut novel, the author has found a way to take romance and suspense and blend them together to produce a very memorable plot.
Beginning on Little Gale Island in 2002, an accident has taken place. A kind man by the name of Ben Haskell has been rushed to the hospital; the victim of an apparent monster. Dahlia and Josie Bergeron are the daughters of this drunken monster and have been dealing with him all their lives - a man who abused their mother and followed them across the country in order to make their lives miserable. The town comes together to stand behind Ben Haskell and his son, Matthew, who has appeared back on the island after living in Florida for some time. Matthew, Josie and Dahlia soon have to look back on the past and deal with the secrets and lies that each one of them holds dear.
Back in the 1960’s in New Orleans, Camille was a young girl of eighteen living with her mother and working at her mother’s store. Her mother had two extremely amazing gifts - she knew the power of Voodoo and ran a store that offered the spells and power that her neighbors needed, and she could cook gumbo better than any Creole on the face of he earth.
One day, a handsome man walked into her mother’s store, named Charles, and Camille found herself swept off her feet. Their relationship would lead them to marriage, having two children, and Camille being stuck in a destructive and violent relationship where she had to escape before her children were hurt. And escape she did. Camille and her two daughters ended up on Little Gale, off the coast of Maine. She worked in the local Laundromat and rented an apartment in Ben Haskell’s home - a man whose wife had run off and left him.
Ben was a nice man, and he and his son, Matthew, became ‘guardians’ over the Bergeron females. Matthew was quite taken with the older girl named Dahlia. Although she seemed like a mean, spoiled girl at first, Dahlia was simply good at being high-spirited and making sure that no one on earth would ever hurt her the way her father had hurt her mother. Josie, the younger, sweeter girl who took after her mother with her voodoo gifts and excellent cooking, was head-over-heels for Matthew.
Readers will become immersed with the story of the Bergeron women. From the multiple romances to the intense secrets that they’ve had to keep from one another, to the constant pain their horrific father put them through even from far away, this extremely interesting family offers a little bit of everything to readers of every genre.
There is a new author on the scene, folks, and she has done an amazing job!
Until next time,
Amy
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