Yankee Doodle Dixie

July 18, 2011
Patton follows her debut (Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter) with this semisuccessful sequel. Leelee Satterfield marries her high school boyfriend and follows him from her beloved Memphis to open an inn in rural Vermont, where he abandons her and their two young daughters for another woman (with larger breasts). When Leelee gets an offer on the B&B, it's back to Memphis, with her only regret the "what if" of Peter, the gentleman chef she left behind after a kiss to die for on the way out of town. Leelee first settles in with Kissie, the black housekeeper who raised her, then rents a house next door to an intrusive Tupperware salesman with a lisp. She lands a job at a radio station with the help of close friends, but runs afoul of her boss' rigid rules and a jealous male D.J. with a bustle-like behind. What works is the wonderful, Southern-fictiony relationship between Kissie and Leelee and her daughters, her close friendships, and that certain sorority sister prissiness unique to Southern women of a certain age. What doesn't work is 34-year-old Leelee's pop-cultural references (Gladys Travis from Bewitched, American Bandstand) more believable in a woman older than Leelee, as is that certain sorority sister prissiness.

August 15, 2011

Second in a series begun with the well-received Whistlin Dixie in a Nor'easter (2009), in which Patton's heroine Leelee returns to her native Memphis.

As she flees the endless winter of Vermont, Leelee Satterfield reflects that it was her ex's dream to run a B&B in Yankee territory, not hers. It's not an easy decision: Fiery (her nickname) redhead Leelee had turned the once mildewed inn into a thriving Southern-themed country hostel and starred restaurant, with the help of handsome chef Peter. Just before her departure, Peter, who has not hitherto acknowledged the frisson between them, kisses Leelee. Back in Memphis with two young daughters, Leelee depends on her late parents' former housekeeper, Kissie, to handle the domestic front. Kissie, who talks like Mammy in Gone with the Wind, babysits, cooks and "Lawds" up a storm, while Leelee finds employment at Classic Hits FM 99. Her three BFFs welcome Leelee back with peach daiquiris and dubious advice. On the job, she contends with the pranks of lovable DJ Johnny and the smarmy advances of the hygiene-challenged midday jock Stan, not to mention her cold-fish boss who warns her against fraternizing with the luminaries who visit the station. However, when rock star Liam White stops by on his tour, he's so taken with Leelee that he offers her an all-expenses-paid trip to his gig in NYC. Leelee has misgivings (she's still hung up on Peter but her letters to him go unsent), but after assurances that her groupie status will be purely platonic, she goes. Naturally her decision results in some complications. Patton, a broadcast veteran, knows her radio, but much of the book feels padded, and the foregone conclusion is telegraphed from the beginning by the title.  

Absent the fish-out-of-water-in-Vermont aspect, this sequel flounders.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011

Leelee Satterfield is back in this follow-up to Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter. The action picks up right where the previous book left off, with Leelee on her way back to Memphis--missing the man she left in Vermont, but happy to be returning to her best friends and her hometown. With the help of those friends and the motherly care of Kissie, the woman who raised her, Leelee meets the challenge of single motherhood head on. She quickly makes a home for herself and her two daughters and finds work at a local radio station. It isn't long before Leelee gets involved with a famous rock star who turns out to be a narcissist just like her ex-husband. Can she break out of her pattern of living to please others and find a way to move her Yankee boyfriend down to Dixie? VERDICT Filled with Southern charm and eccentric characters, this eagerly awaited sequel is sure to please fans of the author's first novel as well as fans of women's fiction writers like Adriana Trigiani and Fannie Flagg. [Four-city tour; see Prepub Alert, 2/21/11.]--Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2011
Patton's new novel picks up where Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter (2009) left off, with Leelee Satterfield on her way to Memphis, leaving a cheating husband, mountains of snow, and a potential love interest behind her in Vermont. Her three best friends and Kissie, the housekeeper who raised her, could not be happier to have her home. Leelee finds a nice house, a decent job at a radio station, and a possible romance with a famous rock star but finds herself falling into old patterns, living her life to please a man. Some sloppy details can be distracting (if Leelee is 34, how did she see James Taylor in concert in 1970?), but the strong relationships between the four friends and Kissie's faith make up for any shortcomings. This is fast and funny, with enough backstory to keep new readers from getting lost and the possibility of further books. A good bet for fans of Beth Hoffman's Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (2010) and Beth Patillo's Sweetgum series and a possible crossover for fans of Neta Jackson's Yada Yada Prayer Group books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)