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Rating: 
Summary: confusing
Review: I love Mapson, I love the bad girls, I love every other novel by Mapson. I want to love this book so badly and had of course, pre-ordered it, but I found it confusing. It seemed choppy, and the characters didn't seem to flow from the first two books. There wasn't enough conflict? I'm not sure. I am a loyal fan and will try re-reading it after reading the first two more recently, and maybe the pieces of the puzzle will fit together better. Usually her books make me feel like I'm sailing down a blue river on a wonderful raft. Like I can't wait to spend more time inside the covers of the book. This one I was able to put down no problem. Never less than three stars for Jo-Ann though....
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing conclusion to the trilogy
Review: I read the three books in this trilogy; I loved the first one for its realistic female characters. I liked the second one. This one? The book company must've made the author write a third one. It sounded like she ran out of steam, and her characters had become little more than stereotypes: the sassy African-American, the wry disabled woman (I was ready to strangle Phoebe with her loud-mouth remarks by the end of this book), the Southern belle who becomes nothing more than a lacquered Barbie doll in this offering (and Nance was so wonderful and realistic in the first). The author seemed to just throw in plot points: well, Beryl's relationship doesn't work out, it might be nice to bring in a Native American for a while, Phoebe should get a disabled boyfriend, how about one of the women gets sick, now? I was disappointed that a story of women's friendship that was so enjoyable at first ended on such a flat note, and I was tired of the author using her characters to push Christianity and vegetarianism. In this book it seemed that every second sentence had Ness or Nance talking about God or a vegetarian reminding someone else that Nance had given up meat. It's a shame that four such realistic, diverse characters ended up sounding like the same uninteresting woman.
Rating:
Summary: A good series comes to an end....
Review: The first of this trilogy by Jo-Ann Mapson was "Bad Girl Creek", which, in my opinion, is the best of the 3 books. I hated for it to end. It grabbed your attention right away and held it. The reader eagerly anticipated book 2 - "Along Came Mary", while 'though entertaining, just didn't have the same punch as the first one. Other members of my book club agreed, as we read it together. This third and last book starts in Alaska, where a former "bad girl" Beryl has to deal with her relationship with Earl and his disappearance. The first 50 pages are slow, but it gets better after that. The most delightful part of the book was the budding little "Sally" the child that was born to Phoebe in the 2nd book. Her fiesty-ness is fun to read about, as is Phoebe's role as her invalid mother. The relationship that Phoebe develops with Andrew went along interestingly enough, but the reader wants to know him better, we wanted more .... more dialogue, more depth. Beryl's detachment from the girls at Bad Girl Creek is frustrating for the reader that found her so bonded to them in the other books. We got more insight into Beryl's background in this book. I love JoAnn Mapson's writing, especially "Bad Girl Creek" and "The Wilder Sisters". I hope she gives us more of her books in the future, but I expected a little more out of this one.
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