Book Tour - These Boots Weren't Made for Walking

Recently I've read These Boots Weren't Made for Walking by Melody Carlson. I guess the main genre it falls under is Christian women's fiction. The tone didn't really hit the chick lit spot, but then I don't know that it was supposed to.

I'm really not the kind of gal who gets obsessed with brand name clothing, so I found the zillions of mentions of brand name this-and-thats annoying. I realize many readers prefer that kind of specificity. I don't.

The main character, Cassidy, loses her job and her boyfriend in one fell swoop at the beginning of the novel--just after spending an exorbitant price on a pair of cute boots. She decides to move back home--in with Mom--while she rediscovers herself. What she discovers first is a mother who is busy doing the same--quite successfully, from all evidence. Cassidy can't believe what her recently divorced mother looks like and acts like.

Neither could I, sorry. My brain absolutely could not engage with this mother's behavior, even though by the end some of the reasons became apparent. She just didn't ring true to any fifty-something women I've ever known. Remember that I'm no fashion nut, though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt!

Cassidy's own story clips along at a more reasonable rate as she begins to pull herself together. The setting of an artsy ski hill resort town is one I'm familiar with and the various town folk seemed well drawn.

Melody Carlson has published over 100 books for adults, children, and teens, including On This Day, Finding Alice, the Notes from a Spinning Planet series, and Homeward, which won the Rita Award from Romance Writers of America. She and her husband, the parents of two grown sons, make their home near the Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon. Melody is a full-time writer as well as an avid gardener, biker, skier, and hiker.