Book Beginnings & Friday 56 - March 22, 2013

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. To play along, please do the following:

1. Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments. 
2. Make sure to share the name of the book and the author so we know what you're reading. 
3. Feel free to share your first impressions with us based on the first line. 
4. Link your post at Rose City Reader, or if you don't have a blog, leave it in the comments below.

On my Kindle this week is Sex, Doug, and a Rocky Road by Michele Bardsley

"I'M SORRY, MRS. JOHNSON."

     The private detective handed me a ratty manila folder.  I clutched it in my hand, not wanting to contemplate the contents.

My thoughts - Well....you were suspicious, otherwise you would not have hired a PI.......

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. To play along:

1. Grab the book closest to you, any book will do.
2. Turn to page 56.
3. Choose the fifth (5th) sentence or a few more (just don't spoil it too much).
4. Post it on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, post it in the comments below.
5. Link your post to Freda's Voice.

I'm using the same book for my Friday 56 Sex, Doug, and a Rocky Road by Michele Bardsley

I'm guessing on the location as it's on my Kindle with no page numbers...sigh

I met Cindy for lunch at Macaroni Grill.  Oh, the irony.  my last anniversary dinner had been here and now, here I was again, ordering pasta, drawing noodles with my pink crayon on the paper tablecloth, and contemplating my relationship with Stan.  Damn him. 

My thoughts - YUM, I love Macaroni Grill....and dump the jerk!

About Sex, Doug, and a Rocky Road:

Ellie Johnson is a housewife and mother scorned. Hiring a private detective to check up on her husband Stan’s late nights verifies her long-held suspicions of his outside activities.

Her name is Rose. She’s blonde, big-boobed, and Australian.

Ellie is almost devastated by her husband’s betrayal. Almost. As she deals with the fallout of her husband’s affair, she begins to realize that she wasn’t happy, either. In fact, she hadn’t been happy in a long time, and the further she gets away from her marriage, the more she realizes how oppressed she’d felt in the housewife role she’d slipped into over the years.

Throw in Ellie’s melodramatic, hypochondriac, alcoholic mother, revelations about her dead father’s lascivious past, a comedy club faux pas, a yoga date gone wrong, the incident where “The Other Woman Almost Killed My Son with Tiny Shrimp,” a very scary divorce attorney, and—well, and you have one messed-up former housewife.

And then there’s Doug.

Doug is her ex-boyfriend—the man she dated before Stan “Whore-man” Johnson. Doug is a cop these days, older, but with the same muscles and chocolate-brown eyes she remembers from their college days. He’s also made it abundantly clear he’d like to take up with Ellie where they left off more than fifteen years ago.

Ellie, however, is trying to go from married to unmarried, and her journey is messy, chaotic, and fraught with ice cream and booze. A lot of booze. Thank goodness for her best friend, Cindy, who stands by Ellie through thick, thin, and many cartons of Rocky Road ice cream.

Sometimes life just falls apart. And sometimes life is sex, Doug, and a rocky road.

Please play along and if you decide to follow my blog, let me know and I'll return the favor.