SummaryWith a ringing phone, Jeanne Ray's charming and amusing
new novel gets off to a rollicking start that never lets
up. Not for a minute. On the other end of the phone is
Caroline's daughter, Kay, a public defender like her
father, sobbing at the improbably good news that the
richest, most eligible boy in Raleigh, North Carolina, has
asked her to marry him. While Caroline and Tom are trying
to digest this, the other phone, the "children's line,"
rings; it is Caroline's sister, Taffy, hysterical over her
husband's decision to leave her for a woman two years
younger than her daughter.
Soon Taffy is wending her way up from Atlanta to seek
solace in her sister's home, even though the two have been
separated by more than just geography for the past forty
years. With her is her little dog, Stamp, who has a
penchant for biting ankles and stealing hearts. Tom and
Caroline quickly realize that the wedding their future son-
in-law's family is envisioning for nine-hundred-plus
guests is to be their fiscal responsibility. To top it all
off, the foundation of their home is in danger of
collapsing and their contractor and his crew have all but
moved in. It's a thundering whirlwind of emotion that
finally boils down to: Who is in love with whom? and Who's
going to get the next dance?
Wise, funny, and impossible to put down, Step-Ball-Change
is peopled with characters you feel you have known your
whole life. It's the kind of book that you can't bear to
see end.
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