Book 1 - Mossy Creek

Mossy Creek is a book written by Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, and Virginia Ellis.

I'm a bit undecided about this one. I didn't expect much, I thought the book was about a compilation of stories from different mossy creekites' point of view. And I do enjoy reading about small town life in the USA, which, surprisingly, not much different than small town life here in Indonesia. Gossip, peer pressure and influence, etc.

Then, just as I expected the author would explore more on the mayor's relationship with the Lt. Col, or probably about the mayor's son and his wife, the story abruptly ended and moved on to different characters. Okay, that was surprising and not in a good way, but I thought I'd keep reading and while knowing other mossy creekites, I'd also catch up with the mayor's personal story. I didn't. I read a line or two about it, but it felt forced and lame excuse to remind me about the mayor.

I like the stories, don't get me wrong; laughed at the Foo Club's stealing the town sign, blinked a tear or two for Jayne Austin. I just wondered if the author was limited to only a set amount of pages and therefore didn't have enough space to develop the characters more. I personally think that it would be a better book if there are fewer characters and more pages for the remaining ones. I caught a glimpse of their lives but by the end of each character's stories, I don't know them any better, and therefore, their stories are easier to forget by the time I got to the last page.

The ending is annoying. Reading the book, I'd never thought that it's a mystery book until the last chapter. No, the last pages. And it doesn't seem ... fair. It's like you start with a John Grisham book only to end up with a Stephen King one, and not in a good way either, even if they are your favorite authors.

To be fair, I haven't read Reunion at Mossy Creek. Does anyone know if it would explore the original characters more, or would it just introduce yet more Mossy Creekites? Because so far, unfortunately, I don't know these Mossy Creekites characters well enough to care about what happened at the Reunion.