I found this book to be a nice, lighthearted read. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's images of Heaven. It was definitely a unique idea.

A quick read which I really enjoyed.

Thanks to Henery Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

 

Girl Meets Class

 

Karin Gillespie

 

Genre: Southern Chick Lit
Publisher: Henery Press
Date of Publication: September 8, 2015
Number of pages: 266

 

 

 

 

The unspooling of Toni Lee Wells’ Tiffany and Wild Turkey lifestyle begins with a trip to the Luckett County Jail drunk tank. An earlier wrist injury sidelined her pro tennis career, and now she’s trading her tennis whites for wild nights roaming the streets of Rose Hill, Georgia.

Her wealthy family finally gets fed up with her shenanigans. They cut off her monthly allowance but also make her a sweetheart deal: Get a job, keep it for a year, and you’ll receive an early inheritance. Act the fool or get fired, and you’ll lose it for good.

Toni Lee signs up for a fast-track Teacher Corps program. She hopes for an easy teaching gig, but what she gets is an assignment to Harriet Hall, a high school that churns out more thugs than scholars.

What’s a spoiled Southern belle to do when confronted with a bunch of street smart students who are determined to make her life as difficult as possible? Luckily, Carl, a handsome colleague, is willing to help her negotiate the rough teaching waters and keep her bed warm at night. But when Toni Lee gets involved with some dark dealings in the school system, she fears she might lose her new beau as well as her inheritance.

Review: 

I have become quite a fan of Henery Press, having discovered some really awesome authors through them. So when I got the chance to try another author, I didn't even think twice, but signed right up. I really should have taken a minute to have read the fine print.  I was looking forward to another fantastic cozy mystery, and what I got was Southern Chick Lit.  Not that there's anything wrong with that mind, it just took a bit for me to figure out that no dead body was going to show up anytime soon.  (Yeah, I am apparently slow like that. *facepalm*)

Now, I am going to be very blunt and tell you that in the beginning, I didn't like Toni Lee. As a matter of fact, there came a point in the book where I put it down and stepped away from it; it just wasn't doing it for me... (Yes, that was also shortly after I realized that at about halfway through, no one was going to end up dead and that this was not the genre I had been anticipating.) However... See, I thought about it, and decided to go back in and give the book a little bit longer, without my brain being stuck in "cozy" mode. And the next thing I knew, I was hooked into the story. It started to pull at me and I became committed to finding out just what was going on at the school... Just like Toni Lee herself finally did.

I can't say that I ended up bonding with her character. After all, she was a real piece of work there for awhile.  But I can say that by the end, I feel she was both redeemable and redeemed. I could concede that there were some valid reasons to how she ended up the way she did. Here was a character who had true growth during the course of the story and I could be happy for her happy ending. Needless to say, I was torn about a rating until I realized that the author took a character that I actively didn't like and turned her into someone I was cheering for at the end. For me, that is the mark of a great author and a good read. I would read this author again. I gave this 3 'I Liked It' stars. I

Thanks to Great Escapes, Netgalley and Henery Press for the opportunity to read and review the book.

Giveaway: 

 

Author Bio:

Karin Gillespie is national bestselling author of five novels and a humor columnist for Augusta Magazine. Her nonfiction writing had been in the New York Times, The Writer Magazine and Romantic Times. She maintains a website and blog at Karingillespie.net. Sign up for her newsletter on her website, follow her on Twitter or connect with her on Facebook.

To connect with the author online:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

I have become quite a fan of Henery Press, having discovered some really awesome authors through them. So when I got the chance to try another author, I didn't even think twice, but signed right up. I really should have taken a minute to have read the fine print. I was looking forward to another fantastic cozy mystery, and what I got was Southern Chick Lit. Not that there's anything wrong with that mind, it just took a bit for me to figure out that no dead body was going to show up anytime soon. (Yeah, I am apparently slow like that. *facepalm*)

Now, I am going to be very blunt and tell you that in the beginning, I didn't like Toni Lee. As a matter of fact, there came a point in the book where I put it down and stepped away from it; it just wasn't doing it for me... (Yes, that was also shortly after I realized that at about halfway through, no one was going to end up dead and that this was not the genre I had been anticipating.) However... See, I thought about it, and decided to go back in and give the book a little bit longer, without my brain being stuck in "cozy" mode. And the next thing I knew, I was hooked into the story. It started to pull at me and I became committed to finding out just what was going on at the school... Just like Toni Lee herself finally did.

I can't say that I ended up bonding with her character. After all, she was a real piece of work there for awhile. But I can say that by the end, I feel she was both redeemable and redeemed. I could concede that there were some valid reasons to how she ended up the way she did. Here was a character who had true growth during the course of the story and I could be happy for her happy ending. Needless to say, I was torn about a rating until I realized that the author took a character that I actively didn't like and turned her into someone I was cheering for at the end. For me, that is the mark of a great author and a good read. I would read this author again. I gave this 3 'I Liked It' stars. I

Thanks to Great Escapes, Netgalley and Henery Press for the opportunity to read and review the book.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

This is my first Karen Gillespie read but it sure won’t me my last! If was good to stray from the mystery genre for this fantastic story!

Toni Lee Wells is what I would call an adult spoiled brat at the beginning of this story. Her pro tennis career is over due to an injury and her family is rich so she has no worries. Life is easy and free and fun until she gets arrested one to many times for her father and especially her Aunt Cornelia who controls the purse strings. She cuts Toni Lee off without a cent and gives her an ultimatum – get a job, keep it for a year, follow all my other rules and I will give you 5 million dollars. Fail and you are your own.

Toni Lee does have a college degree but no job experience so she hooks up with a Teacher Corps program. She is excited thinking teaching is such an easy job until she arrives for her first day at a school that is underfunded and full of underprivileged kids. The kids are more street smart than book smart and her first days are not easy. But she meets Carl, a teacher with plenty of experience and pretty easy on the eyes. Her life is not smooth sailing though. Being new Toni Lee finds herself in the middle of some shady dealings at the school and not everyone is thrilled as her relationship with Carl escalates. Then there is Aunt Cornelia’s rules hanging over her head.

I have to say I didn’t really like Toni Lee at the start of the story. She really had no concerns, she could do almost anything and her family would bail her out. She was helping a friend pay some bills but I thought she was pretty self centered. I applauded her aunt cutting off but leaving the 5 million dangling didn’t sit well with me. Then the teacher twist happened and Toni started to evolve and I began to like her and wanted to see her succeed.

The part of the story that really grabbed me though was the school and the corruption. In Wisconsin, right now we have a Governor that is a war with teachers and public education. School budgets are cut to the bone and nationwide there is a shortage of teachers. Wisconsin has taken things beyond the Teacher Corps in the story by deregulating teacher licensing standards. So if you think things that happened in this school are far fetched I can tell you they are not. In fact they are worse.

Gillespie also features an interracial couple in Girl Meets Class. This adds a whole under layer to the story. The words of a few characters made my skin crawl but this is still a hot topic in America which is just infuriating.

This is a very fast read with some heavy themes but Gillespie has a way of writing that keeps the importance of the topics but they have a lighter feel while enlightening the reader. She adds Southern charm and humor in exactly the right amounts and places. I love that most of the characters grown throughout the whole story.

A very smart novel. I highly recommend.

4.5 stars! I loved the beginning of this book! "Where's that traveling violin man when you need him?" HA! Then, it started getting into the bulk of the story and started getting onto a more serious note which was still very good for me.

The writing was good, the characters were well developed, sex was implied, and violence was hinted at or basically described.

I would love the opportunity to inherit $5 million dollars if I could hold down a job for a year, but I would not want to teach in an inner city school.

Anyways, this is a lighthearted take on that proposal. It does touch on some of the issues that an inner city school would have but it's only basic and handled in a pc manner.