"Along Came a Book That Will Touch Your Heart"

Every once in a while, a book comes along that makes you laugh, cry and thank your lucky stars that authors like Jo- Ann Mapson exist. ALONG CAME MARY, the sequal to Bad Girl Creek, is one of these books. Although I have not read the first book in the series, I plan on going back to start at the beginning of the inspiring series.

ALONG CAME MARY is the story of Mary Caringella, a woman in her late twenties who is trying to recover from the death of her twin sister who died in the Oklahoma City bombing. Mary lives on the road with her drunken boyfriend, singing at rodeos and performing with her two collies and her boyfriends spider monkeys. Mary is also a recovering alcoholic who one day wakes up and decides she's too good for the life she's leading, packs up the truck with her dogs, and takes off.

The book is also the story of the Bad Girls, roommates who were introduced in the first book in the series. There's Ness, who is living with HIV; Phoebe, a wheelchair bound woman whose fiancee has just died and who has found out she's pregnant; Beryl, a woman who has moved to Alaska with her lover, and Nance, an anorexic who is trying to recover from a broken heart.

ALONG CAME MARY switches perspective between these women and Rick, a man who will eventually bind them all together. Each chapter is as joyous as it is heart- rending, focusing on some of the most resilient and amazing women you've ever read about. It's a story of strength, sadness and recovery that will stay with you for weeks after you've turned the last page.

ALONG CAME MARY is recommended to anyone who likes a novel about friendship, love and loss. It's truly one of the best women's fiction books I've ever read.

Reviewed by Angela McQuay
Posted March 10, 2004

Summary

USA Today called Jo-Ann Mapson's national bestseller Bad Girl Creek "a valentine to oceans of good women who survive bad beginnings and worse men." Now the author, hailed as "one of the most gifted writers of the contemporary urban West" (Los Angeles Times), brings back the hard-luck women of her acclaimed previous novel -- and introduces another indelible character into their midst. After finally wising up to her drunken rodeo crooner lover, Mary Madigan saddles up her twin border collies and takes her act on the road, leaving miles of heartache and highway behind. When she meets Rick, a charming and persistent journalist haunted by his own ghosts, she suddenly has a travel companion and a new lover (with an all-too-familiar set of tricks). Their travels ultimately bring them to Bad Girl Creek, where the waters have already been troubled. Phoebe's pregnancy is life-threatening, Nance's break-up diet has turned dangerously successful, Beryl is still struggling to adjust to life after prison, and HIV-positive Ness is distancing herself from the "healthy" world -- if you can call it that. But these are the Bad Girl Creek ladies: they are resilient. The ways they pull together, cheer each other on through good times and bad, and cope with every curve life throws at them make up the heart and soul of this powerful and big-hearted novel.