The Trouble With Lacy Brown, by Debra Clopton~reviewed

Title: The Trouble With Lacy Brown
By Debra Clopton
Published by SteepleHill
ISBN: 0-373-87328-X

WIVES NEEDED
Love is in the air…and the hair—or so wacky hairstylist Lace Brown believes when she swoops into Mule Hollow. The town placed an ad for wives, and Lacy's salon is going to guarantee pretty ones!

BUT NOT BY CLINT MATLOCK
The moment cattleman Clint Matlock meets the spitfire stylist, he can tell she won't last. Attractive women just don't stick around dusty cow towns; his mom certainly hadn't. But Clint never expects Tornado Lacy to set his emotions spinning, Perhaps the trouble with Lacy Brown is that her last name should be Matlock.

If you're looking for a fun read, The Trouble With Lacy Brown delivers. A real lollipop of a novel, I thoroughly enjoyed Clopton's debut book and devoured it in one sitting. She has a fresh voice, penned with subtle humor, and I found myself laughing out loud a few times. Her heroine is not the stereotype hairstylist, while the minor characters were just that—characters, funny and just what you'd expect to find in a small Texas cow town. Some of the plot points were heading toward predictability, but Clopton gave them enough of a twist to keep my attention. The sequel, And Baby Makes Five, is due out in April, 2006. A good first novel, Clopton will only get better with each book, and I'm looking forward to her next offering.

Reviewed by Ane Mulligan
www.anemulligan.com