NY Times best selling author, Connie Brockway has a new book! Her second women's fiction novel is titled Skinny Dipping. You smiled at the title, didn't you, because it smacks of the rollicking good romp that it is.
Mimi Olson is a tele-medium (she speaks to the dead) and comes from a long line (depending on which side of the family tree one happens to be discussing) of slackers or type A personalities. Mimi falls, no, willingly wallows in the slacker department. She's never met a decision she really wants to make, until it comes to a run-down northern Minnesota lake enclave called Chez Duckey.
Chez Duckey has been jointly owned by the various Olson family members for over a hundred years. And now there is talk of a sale! Not if Mimi has anything to say about it. She may be a slacker and may not want the role of leader, but there is the bigger issue of family, summers vacationing at `the lake' and saving the land from the dreaded McMansions beginning to spring up around the lake.
Things are complicated enough in Mimi's life what with her trying to save Chez Duckey and searching for her long-time missing father. When Mimi loses her swim suit, she burglarizes a car looking for the blanket that every self-respecting Minnesotan keeps in the back seat or trunk. Muddy and naked, she meets the car's owner, Joe, a control freak extraordinaire, who has an estranged son who owns one of the McMansions. Now this story will keep you turning the pages and belly laughing. Add in all the Olson relatives (including that 82-year-old skinny-dipping matriarch Birgie), a little romance, some greed, some growing up-and you get more laughter mixed with a healthy dose of chaos.
Skinny Dipping is delightful. You'll enjoy the quirky Mimi and the hilarious band of characters Brockway has created. If you're from Minnesota and every summer you trek `up to the lake' to the cabin, you've got a leg up on everyone else. You know what she's talking about because you live it.
Armchair Interviews says: Skinny Dipping is a wonderful start to 2008. Buy it, you'll love it and then check out Brockway's other titles--all as good as Skinny-Dipping.
