About the Book
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| ★★★★✩ Goodreads | Amazon |
June, 1947. Charleston is poised to celebrate the biggest
wedding in high-society history, the joining of two of the oldest families in
the city. Except the bride is nowhere to be found…
Unlike the rest of the debs she grew up with, Vada Hadley
doesn’t see marrying Justin McLeod as a blessing – she sees it as a life
sentence. So when she finds herself one day away from a wedding she doesn’t
want, she’s left with no choice but to run away from the future her parents
have so carefully planned for her.
In Round O, South Carolina, Vada finds independence in
the unexpected friendships she forms at the boarding house where she stays, and
a quiet yet fulfilling courtship with the local diner owner, Frank Darling. For
the first time in her life, she finally feels like she’s where she’s meant to
be. But when her dear friend Darby hunts her down, needing help, Vada will have
to confront the life she gave up – and decide where her heart truly belongs.
Kim Boykin’s Palmetto
Moon is a charming, simple novel. Set in South Carolina in the 1940s, it
follows Vada Hadley as she searches for independence and love. Vada, running
from the confines of an unwanted arranged marriage and wealthy Charleston
society, finds herself on her own in the small country town of Round O, and I
found Vada likeable as a character simply for her determination to forge her
own way apart from family expectations. She easily secures her place in the
town with housing at the boardinghouse and a job as the schoolteacher (though
she never steps foot in the schoolhouse at any point within the narrative) and
quickly begins to build relationships with the people around her.
The main relationship develops between Vada and the handsome
diner owner, Frank Darling. Their relationship is sweet and tender, and since I
love romance, many moments had me smiling. However, a lack of depth does become
evident as the pages pass. Both Vada and Frank experience an (understandable)
instant attraction to each other and soon label their feelings as “love,” but these
feelings seem almost entirely based on a driving attraction and lack other
supporting qualities. Though I did like these two characters together and
enjoyed their expected ending, it would have been nice to see a bit more in
their quickly moving relationship.
Still, Palmetto Moon
is an entertaining and delightful summer story. Readers of Southern fiction looking
for a light and easy read will surely be pleased with its endearing characters
and storyline. Thanks to Kim Boykin and Pump Up Your Book, I
received a copy of Palmetto Moon and the opportunity to
provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and
all the opinions I have expressed are my own.
About the Author
Almost everything she
learned about writing, she learned from her grandpa, an oral storyteller, who
was a master teacher of pacing and sensory detail. He held court under an old
mimosa tree on the family farm, and people used to come from all around to hear
him tell stories about growing up in rural Georgia and share his unique take on
the world.
As a stay-at-home mom,
Kim started writing, grabbing snippets of time in the car rider line or on the
bleachers at swim practice. After her kids left the nest, she started
submitting her work, sold her first novel at 53, and has been writing like
crazy ever since.
Thanks to the lessons
she learned under that mimosa tree, her books are well reviewed and, according
to RT Book Reviews, feel like they’re being told across a kitchen table. She is
the author of The Wisdom of Hair from Berkley, Steal Me, Cowboy and Sweet Home Carolina from Tule, and Palmetto Moon also from Berkley. While
her heart is always in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, she lives in Charlotte
and has a heart for hairstylist, librarians, and book junkies like herself.
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