I don’t normally read a lot of cozy mysteries, but this book made me realize I should. I love thrillers and romcoms and cozy mysteries seem to be the perfect in-between. The librarian in a small town Mississippi needs to save the library. There isn’t much funding and patronage is down. So, the cherry club book club was created to hopefully bring in more clients. Will the book club succeed and be able to stop the local government from dismantling it? ( )

TKAM discussion was the best part of the book.
WHYY as the local radio station? How could the author not check that this is a station in Philadelphia. Home of Terry Gross and Fresh Air. ( )

I listened to this audio book on a long driving trip. While this book has gotten some negative reviews, I actually enjoyed it ....for the most part. I did think the ending was flat. I feel the author did a good job describing the characters. I feel like I know them and could have a conversation with them. There are some, though, that I would ignore at all costs. :-)
Maura Beth is a young director of a small town library. The town council has given her until the end of the year to turn the library around. She and a small group of dedicated readers push to keep the library open.
I loved how this book club thinks *outside the box* when conducting their club meetings. ( )

The Cherry Cola Book Club by Ashton Lee was Page Turners’ selection for February. Sad to say only one of our members liked it. The book had the feel of a cozy mystery — really quirky characters and a small town setting — but alas, no mystery was to be had. The author instead endeavored to create women’s fiction involving a book club dedicated to saving the local library. Great premise; poor execution. The characters came off as caricatures and the plot strained believability. And nothing seemed to happen. One bright spot was the inclusion of food — lots of it. The characters ate more than they discussed books! It is the first in a series, but sadly, we will not be reading subsequent books. ( )

Maura Beth Mayhew has been the librarian at Cherico, Mississippi for about 6 years. The head town councilman is threatening to shut down the library. Maura Beth, her friends, and patrons launch a campaign to keep the library in the town's budget. I listened to the audiobook of this and found it to be perfect for a drive where I couldn't pay close attention all the time, but there were things that bothered me, both about the book and the reader. The reader consistently mispronounced "Natchez." Cherico is described as being in Mississippi on the Tennessee River where there are lots of retirees and folks who have summer homes with a population of about 5000. It is also described as being near Corinth and that folks go "over to" Corinth. The only true town that comes close to this description would be Iuka. The description of the library itself does not seem to fit any library in that general area with which I'm familiar. Mississippians in that part of the state tend to have mayors and boards of aldermen rather than councilmen. There is an incident where a person has a heart attack and is flown from the Cherico hospital to Nashville for an angioplasty. No one in Tishomingo County would be flown to Nashville when that same sort of surgery can be performed at the largest hospital in the state of Mississippi in Tupelo which is much closer and convenient for the families. The author made it sound like balloon angioplasty was quite new in 2012, but it has been performed for awhile, and I can assure you that the surgeons working the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo are quite experienced in the procedure as my own father had it done there several years prior to 2012. The premise of the book was interesting. The discussion topics for Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Robber Bridegroom are interesting, but the author needed to set her book in an area with which she was more familiar, perhaps either the very mispronounced "Natchez" or "Nashville" which she kept trying to figure into the narrative. It was a little strange having the recipes read to you at the end of an audio book. That feature probably works better with the print version. I'm curious enough about the book club and its topics, and the viability of the library to perhaps try the second installment. ( )