The Last Chance Matinee by Mariah Stewart: When celebrated and respected agent Fritz Hudson passes away, he leaves a trail of Hollywood glory in his wake-and two separate families who never knew the other existed. Allie and Des Hudson are products of Fritz's first marriage to Honora, a beautiful but troubled starlet whose life ended in a tragic overdose. Meanwhile, Fritz fell in love on the Delaware Bay with New Age hippie Susa Pratt-they had a daughter together, Cara, and while Fritz loved Susa with everything he had, he never quite managed to tell her or Cara about his West Coast family. Now Fritz is gone, and the three sisters come together under strange circumstances: there's a large inheritance available that could save Allie from her ever-deepening debt following a disastrous divorce, allow Des to open a rescue shelter for abused and wounded animals, and give Cara a fresh start after her husband left her for her best friend-but only if the sisters upend their lives and work together to restore an old, decrepit theater that was Fritz's obsession growing up in his small hometown in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Guided by Fritz's closest friend and longtime attorney, Pete Wheeler, the sisters come together-whether they like it or not-to turn their father's dream into a reality, and might just come away with far more than they bargained for. I'm trying to imagine how I'd feel if I suddenly had one or two new siblings from a different woman who I'd never known about. Dad wasn't ever gone enough for that to work well (and he wasn't the unfaithful type anyway, thank heavens) but it's an interesting thing to ponder. There would certainly be some serious issues to work through!
Allegations have been made of us having different fathers, you know.Really? You're going to bring that up in a public setting? Our father was the one who spread those rumors and everyone knew it was just a joke. No one could ever look at us and deny that you belong to Mom and I belong to Dad.
Sissy:
True. You are Dad's family clone, which made his joke about Mom and the neighborhood dentist absurd. But he sure had fun telling the busybodies at church that you weren't his. Sounds rather tacky and disturbing all these years later. Pops thought he was funny, but he was lucky Mom didn't whack him with a baseball bat while he was sleeping. Darling true sister, we're off track here. Get us back to the story of The Last Chance Matinee.Yes, ma'am. Three sisters are thrown together in their father's hometown and given the task of restoring the decrepit family movie theater. Boy howdy do they uncover a boatload of secrets, including a relative they never knew existed. They are all living together in the family mansion. I'm pretty sure that if forced to, my siblings could restore a theater without much problem. Living together in one house, however large? Us sisters could do that but not with the boys.
Because sometimes boys are bossy, gross know-it-alls. Each sister in this tale has problems that receiving the inheritance would help, so that motivates them to stay. However, Allie seems the most miserable and in imminent danger of breakdown. Her daughter's arrival-I thought she was going to be a total spoiled brat, by the way and she so wasn't...
Who said you could just interrupt me like that? Ahem. As I was saying-her daughter's arrival made things infinitely better. In this first book of The Hudson Sisters trilogy, there are just hints of romantic possibilities for each sister and some of them are wholly unexpected. The last Chance Matinee lays an engaging foundation of new relationships and now I'm thoroughly hooked. Too bad I have to wait a year for book two.And another year for book three! The Last Chance Matinee just pulled me right in and I was upset when it ended because there was so much more than I needed to know! So many questions still unanswered, so many relationships unexplored. At least I know that there are more books in my future. Mariah Stewart is a new author for me and I'm excited to try one of her other series.
We've heard that Mariah Stewart's Chesapeake Diaries series is quite lovely, so that is immediately going on our TBR list. I have to say that The Last Chance Matinee drew me in fairly quickly and kept me engrossed through the end, at which point I threw my Kindle down and had a small fit.She does that from time to time. We just prop up her head and feed her prune juice until it passes...
Wow. There's a picture. I'd probably recover faster if you fed me chocolate. Anyway, I finished the book before Bubby, and I told her it was like watching your favorite show and right at the best bit the screen says "To Be Continued..." but in this case it's not next week, it's next year! And then I threw myself on the floor and had a more prolonged fit. Lest you be discouraged by what I've just said, The Last Chance Matinee is well worth the read, and worth the patience required to wait for the rest of the story!
Click to buy The Last Chance Matinee by Mariah Stewart.
