The Chili Queen: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Unlikeable and Unlikely
Review: What a disappointment! After reading the Persian Pickle Club, I made a point to read all of Sandra Dallas' work and was thrilled to find a new entry. However, there is NO charm, no real plot, no redeeming characters, and no reason to suffer through some of the worst dialogue ever written. The plot eases from tedious to convoluted, the characters are not only unlikeable but unlikely, the New Mexico setting is given only a cursory look, and for this reader, the book was a Big Mistake.

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying enjoyment.
Review: When starting a new Sandra Dallas book there is always the very solid (reassuring) knowledge that you are heading for a pleasant treat. "Not a book that would change your life" as one reviewer commented, but truly pure enjoyment. This was indeed my feeling during the reading of this book and after ending it I was sorry to part from these colorful spicy characters. Let me also add that the experience was rather short, as Dallas books are always a fast read.
The Chili Queen is not different from Dallas other books in the sense that here again we get a close look on mostly women characters of the West, their daily life and struggles. However, whereas Dallas always centers around women sisterhood, portraying most often one personal woman world ("Alice Tulips", "The diary of Mattie Spencer" and "The Persian Pickle Club") among other secondary characters, in this book the scope is broadened to give us two women and a man as the main characters, and all of them are quite unique, nothing of the ordinary folks we see in her other stories.
This is the story of Addie, a Madam in a small whorehouse in Nalgitas who meets a woman named Emma on the train. Emma seems a pathetic creature, about to marry a man she has never seen before. Although Addie's life has not been without hardships she has not lost her kindness and when Emma is dumped by her future husband she takes her into her home. The tale gets more complicated but I would not like to add a thing so as not to ruin the reader's enjoyment (several reviewing comments I read in the beginning of the book were enough to ruin some of the pleasure for me) .
My copy ends with a list of questions for Reading Groups - among them the question "which character did you most want to find peace and happiness?" this question, so I feel, touches the main flaw of this book. Dallas herself seems to like her characters too much and wants them all to find "peace and happiness". This is evident in the human, kind portrayal of all her four characters but is also the problem of this book as this is not always the way life works.
Full of charm and understanding of human nature.

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying enjoyment.
Review: When starting a new Sandra Dallas book there is always the very solid (reassuring) knowledge that you are heading for a pleasant treat. "Not a book that would change your life" as one reviewer commented, but truly pure enjoyment. This was indeed my feeling during the reading of this book and after ending it I was sorry to part from these colorful spicy characters. Let me also add that the experience was rather short, as Dallas books are always a fast read.
The Chili Queen is not different from Dallas other books in the sense that here again we get a close look on mostly women characters of the West, their daily life and struggles. However, whereas Dallas always centers around women sisterhood, portraying most often one personal woman world ("Alice Tulips", "The diary of Mattie Spencer" and "The Persian Pickle Club") among other secondary characters, in this book the scope is broadened to give us two women and a man as the main characters, and all of them are quite unique, nothing of the ordinary folks we see in her other stories.
This is the story of Addie, a Madam in a small whorehouse in Nalgitas who meets a woman named Emma on the train. Emma seems a pathetic creature, about to marry a man she has never seen before. Although Addie's life has not been without hardships she has not lost her kindness and when Emma is dumped by her future husband she takes her into her home. The tale gets more complicated but I would not like to add a thing so as not to ruin the reader's enjoyment (several reviewing comments I read in the beginning of the book were enough to ruin some of the pleasure for me) .
My copy ends with a list of questions for Reading Groups - among them the question "which character did you most want to find peace and happiness?" this question, so I feel, touches the main flaw of this book. Dallas herself seems to like her characters too much and wants them all to find "peace and happiness". This is evident in the human, kind portrayal of all her four characters but is also the problem of this book as this is not always the way life works.
Full of charm and understanding of human nature.