Bed and Breakfast

by Lois Battle

Overview

The delightful holiday tale of Josie Taternall and her South Carolina bed and breakfast from  "born storyteller" (The Washington Post) and New York Times bestselling author Lois Battle

After her best friend's narrow brush with death, Josie decides that life is too short to let old grievances stand in the way of family togetherness. This year, she resolves, her three grown daughters - the girls she raised so carefully yet with such mixed results - will come home for Christmas. With her uncanny ear for Southern sensibility and her sharp-eyed wit, Battle gives us the perfect upstairs/downstairs comedy and a portrait of a family in all its tender, touching, and flawed glory that readers young and old will cherish.

"Full of warmth, humor, and characters I completely adore - as delicious as a weekend at your favorite inn." -Dorothea Benton Frank, New York Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101571897
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/25/2009
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	385 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lois Battle's seven novels include Bed and Breakfast, Storyville, War Brides, and A Habit of the Blood, (all Penguin). She lives in Beaufort, South Carolina.

What People are Saying About This

Joanna Trollope

"Truthful and benovolent and entirely recognizable...Proof that however much we wish we could get along without a family, we simply can't." -- Author of 'A Spanish Lover'

Rosamunde Pilcher

"Atmospheric and satisfying."

Nancy Thayer

"Lois Battle's 'Bed and Breakfast' is pure delight: touching and witty, sympathetic and shrewd. It's the kind of book I'll rush to tell all my friends about: it's a book I can't wait to give my mother!" -- Author of 'Belonging' and 'Family Secrets'

Editorial Reviews

Battle's (Storyville) considerable storytelling gifts breathe life into what might well have become just one more novel about the estranged children of a dysfunctional Southern family. Josie Tatternall, the septuagenarian widow of an unfaithful martinet of an army officer and owner of a bed and breakfast in upscale Beaufort, S.C., is determined that all three of her daughters will be reunited for the upcoming Christmas holidays. That will be no easy task after years of real and imagined affronts among the siblings and their mother. A decade earlier, the eldest daughter, Camilla, had even vowed she'd never return home. But this year, Christmas looks so bleak for Camher job at a women's press is in jeopardy, her lover of three years has moved to Atlanta and she may be pregnantthat she reluctantly accepts her mother's invitation. Middle daughter Lila Gadsen, the "good girl" her mother can always count on, lives in nearby Hilton Head with her politician husband and two sullen teenagers and keeps a stash of Halcion and Percodan hidden in her designer kitchen. Beautiful Evie, who, her grandmother says, was "born dumb and had a relapse," lives in Savannah and writes a newspaper column that reveals a few too many family secrets. Despite Josie's best efforts, Christmas Eve is a disaster. It's another year and another Christmas season before Battle wraps up the loose ends and offers readers a true-love happy ending for a most surprising couple. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this well-crafted story by the author of Storyville (Viking, 1993), Josie Tatternall, a military widow in her seventies, is inspired by a friend's nearly fatal illness to call together her own three daughtersin particular, her estranged daughter, Cam, who has not been home since the death of her father years ago. What starts out as a family gathering for the twilight of Josie's life actually marks the beginning of her understanding of her achievements and, quite unexpectedly, her second chance at love. The story introduces a cast of memorable characters, primarily Josie herself, who fully reminds us that life, love, and growth are not limited to any particular age. Somewhat light reading, but a good story nonetheless.Susan C. Colegrove, Athens Regional Lib. System, Ga.

Library Journal