Happily Ever Madder

September 17, 2012
“I’m going to be nice. Even if it kills me,” Ace Jones declares in McAfee’s latest (after Diary of a Mad Fat Girl). The Southern girl with a big attitude may bite her tongue when she starts a new life in the exclusive community of Pelican Cove, Fla., with her lawyer fiancé, Mason McKenzie, and a new art gallery. Before long, Mason’s long hours on the job have Ace questioning their future together, and Lenore Kennashaw, Ace’s arch nemesis in Pelican Cove, seems to be doing everything in her power to ensure that Ace fails at her endeavors. Lenore may have her cronies, but there are a set of wily, witty, and free-spirited women who recognize her as a fraud and befriend Ace. Will Ace’s willpower hold, or will she release her full fury and show Lenore who is really queen? Though Ace struggles with love and career, McAfee’s latest is fun and clever, and Ace is still a firecracker if not the full-out brush fire she once was. An overly melancholy ending leaves the reader guessing if Ace will retreat or push forward with all guns blazing next time out. Agent: Susanna Einstein and Molly Reese, LJK Literary Management.

November 1, 2012
Graciela Ace Jones, the overly spunky and trigger-tongued heroine of McAfee's Diary of a Mad Fat Girl (2012), is back, with her long-beloved fianc', Mason; her own art gallery; and a sparkling new life in Pelican Cove, Florida. Furthermore, she's determined to be a nice girl now. Yet as soon as she meets a gaggle of waspish local ladies who seem hell-bent on bringing her down, Ace's resolutions sink quicker than the Titanic. Led by Lenore Kennashaw and her hangers-on, Ace's opponents use every means at their disposal to dispose of the successful new girl in town. Also faced with Mason's lengthy hours as an attorney and a wandering imagination, Ace can't help being fascinated by a sexy man who strolls into her gallery, and she worries she's about to lose her grip and end up mad as a hatter surrounded by haters. McAfee's novel is filled with delicate southern charm as well as backbiting southern snark, and her characters alternate between inducing laughter to prompting eye-rolling. Fans of the first titlewill certainly clamor for this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)