The Blue Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee by Carolyn Brown

Set in Cadillac Texas this was the perfect antidote to the genteel, slightly formal reads I have been indulging in of late!

Four women, two of them related all of them good friends and looking out for each other. All slightly quirky but wonderful people.  Aunt Agnes old, eccentric and dangerous declares war on Violet Prescott. The war has been declared forty years ago and neither time nor age has diminished or mellowed either of them. The younger four just want to keep the peace!

Covering the jubilee celebrations of this small town is the climax of the story. How small town relationships evolve, how everyone knows everyone else's business almost before it happens (I can't believe this happening in America but I think I now have to!), the warm heartedness of people and that friendship amongst women is one of the nicest things there is around is the story of the book.

Covering a cheating cop married to one of our women and now playing around with her and another, the mild Cathy being over ridden by the politically ambitious Violet and her ineffective son and his agent, the club which seeks to keep Agnes out at any cost for reasons going back decades, the how and why of an underground railroad for abused women and how a former brothel owner has turned preacher with her own church and planning of weddings which go really over the top are part of the fun of this book.

The book was hilarious and funny. It was seriously chick lit for me when I needed it most!