Desert Isle Keeper
Folk Around and Find Out
I’m a long time fan of Penny Reid’s books, in particular her Knitting in the City series, which led to her Winston Brothers series, which has now led to her Good Folk: Modern Folktales series. This latest offering brings to the forefront some of the secondary characters met through the Winstons. Folk Around and Find Out is an opposites-attract romance that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. It may even have eclipsed Beard Science as my favourite of Reid’s contemporary romances (just don’t tell Cletus!).
Hank Weller runs a strip club, The Pink Pony, in Green Valley, Tennessee. It’s a business he started to thwart his wealthy family’s expectations of him, but one he runs with pride. (He also has other businesses that are equally profitable, but most people don’t know about them). He makes sure the strippers who work for him are paid fair wages, are protected from harassment, and are given other job opportunities when they no longer want to perform at the club. In other words, he’s a decent guy despite what people who don’t know him may think. He also happens to be Beau Winston’s best friend, a relationship that has lasted over the years since childhood.
Charlotte Mitchell is an Elementary school teacher and a church-going mother of four (Kimmy, Joshua, Sonya and Frankie) whose ex-husband happens to have run off with one of Hank’s employees. This has put Hank into the hot seat (though the blame really lies with Charlotte’s ex), with the community giving him the cold shoulder since it happened. But Charlotte needs Hank – or rather, she needs to find out what happened to her cousin, who was rumoured to have worked at a strip club before disappearing – so she approaches Hank for a job as a stripper to get an ‘in’ to the business. She doesn’t think about what that might mean for her own reputation, or for her children at school, as she’s never been one to be bothered by rumours and such. Hank refuses, but then it turns out he needs a bookkeeper and Charlotte has those skills – so voilà, she ends up working for him anyway. Her plan is to work there for only a couple of weeks while she investigates what happened to her cousin.
Once in each other’s company, Hank can admit to himself that he’s attracted to Charlotte. As for Charlotte, well she’d had an unrequited crush on Hank when they were teenagers; he’s a few years older than her and sometimes they would both be hanging out at the Winstons’ at the same time (Hank with Beau and Charlotte with Beau’s younger brother Roscoe). Of course it’s been several years since then, and Charlotte thought she’d put those feelings to bed a long time ago. However. now that Charlotte is Hank’s employee, she’s off limits as far as Hank is concerned. This ratchets up the sexual tension between them. Eventually, with Charlotte’s full consent, their feelings spill over into a secret affair. But can it really lead to a lasting relationship?
Watching Charlotte and Hank dance around each other is a lot of fun as they come to terms with their attraction. Their love scenes are sexy (a definite plus for single mom Charlotte) and there is plenty of witty banter to go around. Growing up in the same community makes them think they already know a lot about each other, but they are constantly surprised by new information that makes them see one an
There wouldn’t be a Green Valley without the Winstons, so there are several cameo appearances by the brothers and their spouses. Charlotte is a good friend of Sienna (Jethro Winston’s wife) and their children have play dates and birthday parties together. Beau and Hank have a standing fishing date during which they get into in-depth conversations about life and love. At one point Cletus Winston (the man who knows everyone and has a secret dossier on them) gets involved when Charlotte’s ex-husband’s family starts to make trouble. I loved these appearances and catching up with everyone.
But the most enjoyable part of this story is how Charlotte’s children are all so different and how Hank is absolutely wonderful with them all. He treats them all as individuals and bonds with them in different ways. Hank, who has had no interest in having children up to this point in his life and has no experience with them at all, becomes a stalwart friend and helper and all-round parent material, to Charlotte (and Hank’s!) surprise. Ms. Reid is excellent at writing realistic child rearing scenarios and the addition of Hank to Charlotte’s family adds another meaningful layer to this romance.
I’m very happy with how this story evolved, the characters, the situations, and the sexy romance. There is a satisfying resolution to the case of the missing cousin, too. I highly recommend Folk Around and Find Out to fans of the author and to anyone who enjoys single parent romances and unexpected heroes.
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I'm a biochemist and a married mother of two. Reading has been my hobby since grade school, and I've been a fan of the romance genre since I was a teenager. Sharing my love of good books by writing reviews is a recent passion of mine, but one which is richly rewarding.
Book Details
Reviewer: | Maria Rose |
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Review Date: | December 2, 2022 |
Publication Date: | 10/2022 |
Grade: | A |
Sensuality | Warm |
Book Type: | Contemporary Romance |
Review Tags: | Good Folk: Modern Folktales series | realistic parenting | single mother | Tennessee |
Does no one else have a problem with the timeline? Charlotte is supposedly 26 and has 4 kids, the oldest of whom is 9. So she would have had to have been pregnant by her ex, Kevin, with her first child when she was 16 — when the hero Hank supposedly stood her up at junior prom. So she was pregnant by one boy & trying to go to prom with another boy at the same time??? The author does not seem to have done a basic timeline sketch.
Time runs differently for Charlotte than it does for the rest of us. A central theme in the book is that Charlotte is exhausted and has no time for relationships. But somehow she has time not just to work out, but to work out to the extent that despite 4 pregnancies, she has rock hard abs and biceps. Maintaining that level of physical shape is almost a job in itself but we’re supposed to believe that a single mom of 4, can work full-time, maintain the body of a triathlete and learn how to be a wizard bookkeeper on the side.
Then there are her children. Her 7 year old reads The Economist and lectures adults on international monetary policy and the history of the Federal Reserve. Yeah, right.
And then there’s Hank the hero, a 29 year old stripper and strip club owner who bought a strip club at 21 to piss off his parents, whose main crime appears to be that they were wealthy doctors. Hank runs the perfect strip club where no one is exploited or sexually harassed because he trains his strippers to keep their power and even gives his employees diamond jewelry as parting gifts. Cause that’s also so realistic.
I know this is fantasy but the setup was so improbable that it kept pulling me out of the story.
The Economist? #smh
I’m surprised an editor didn’t step in there.
She’s always published as an indie, I can’t recall if she’s ever mentioned an editor in the author’s notes.
Ahh, well, things I didn’t know!
(Vis no editorial, not indie pubbing, of course).
Thanks for your thoughts! I didn’t clue into the age discrepancy (obviously) but it’s interesting, I went through all the 1, 2 and 3 star reviews on Goodreads and Amazon US and no-one mentioned anything about age at all, so you have sharp eyes! I suspect that most of the people reading this series (myself included) are fans of the author’s writing style and characters, and there have definitely been situations in her other books that are improbable and unlikely to happen. I guess I’m used to suspending my disbelief at the situations her characters find themselves in, but I can totally see picking up an unknown to me author and finding fault with a similar kind of situation. (It’s easy to overlook flaws when you expect to like something that is familiar and by an author you already enjoy). It doesn’t change my love of the story but I appreciate another point of view, and I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. (and from what I understand, the boy reading The Economist is modeled after her own son and his interests).
I once had an exchange with Anne Stuart–whose books tend to work for me. I had posted on a review of one of her books that it seemed so silly to me that many of her heroines come at first thrust. She wrote back that it could happen. I realized that the point of her insta-orgasm heroines was to model easy and fabulous sex for women, many of whom don’t have that.
I think Reid’s books are utter fantasy and that’s just fine. She writes to create joy which I think she does well. If your someone that her brand of kooky fabulousness doesn’t work, that’s fine. And if it does, that’s great.
Your comments about this book made me laugh so hard. (And not want to read it!)
Penny Reid has never failed to satisfy me, so I’m looking forward to reading this one.