SWEET HOME CAROLINA by T Lynn Ocean
T Lynn Ocean's latest novel SWEET HOME CAROLINA could be subtitled "'Northern Exposure' moves south." "Northern Exposure" was a TV series of a few years back in which a young doctor moved to Alaska to practice medicine. He goes to a small town and meets a variety of quirky people. In T Lynn Ocean's novel a young public relations person moves to a small town in South Carolina and meets a variety of quirky folks. The TV series was a hit and this novel should also prove to be quite popular.
Jaxie Parker works for a public relations firm in Atlanta, and she is very good at her job. So good that her boss, Aaron Ackworth, selects her for a special project. He wants her to head up a drive to revitalize his hometown of Rumton, South Carolina. The small coastal town is drying up and dying. It needs help and help fast.
Jaxie is less than thrilled at the thought of living in this "burg" for two to three weeks but she really has no choice in the matter. She either does it or alienates her boss. Aaron tells her she can even live in his aunt's house, since there are no motels in the area.
Jaxie moves to Rumton and starts searching for ways to bring the town back to life. Along the way she meets a collection of odd but endearing townspeople. She even finds an unlikely love interest while she is there.
The joy of the book is in the way Jaxie comes to know and appreciate the townspeople. The small town values and sense of community seep into her soul and make her appreciate a new way of life. Before she knows it she is one of them.
T Lynn Ocean manages to make these people enjoyable without being condescending. She also is a talented enough writer to make Jaxie's transition believable and heartwarming. You enjoy Jaxie's discomfort when she first arrives in Rumton, and you marvel at her ability to adapt to the situations that confront her.
We have all read "fish out of water" stories but Jaxie's situation is told with enough depth to take it out of the ordinary. She is a stranger in a strange land but every episode of her stay is fresh enough to keep the reader entertained.
There is also a lack of stereotypes in this novel. There are quirky personalities but none of them meet the backwoods hicks characterizations seen in so many other stories. Ocean shows that southern does not mean ignorant.
SWEET HOME CAROLINA is full of humor and heart with a dash of romance and even drama thrown in. The best way to describe it is to say it is totally readable. So get a copy and make a visit to a special place in South Carolina. It is a sweet homage to a way of life that is quickly disappearing.
SWEET HOME CAROLINA is published by Thomas Dunne Books. It contains 272 pages and sells for $23.95