Sugar Cane and Spider Monkey is a delightful fast track read targeted for women of all ages with laughs guaranteed also serious parts which may make you grab your tissues! There are plenty of threads of sub-plots weaved into the plots making this book a guaranteed winner! Most captivating are the characters which keep driving you to read on and seek what happens next! The two main characters are sisters-in-laws, Ally and Ava, whose sons they fear may be in jeopardy from their scourge of a brother-in-law, Larry. Larry who as a sibling was the shining star in his parents’ eyes. What happened to change him drastically? Can Ava’s and Ally’s fears be realized at the end of the book’s wedding reception? Also, the scourge of a brother-in-law’s wife, whose career started off so successful, is now a tormentor too! Sounds too awful to be true. The Ocean City Police Chief plays an important role as do the Ocean City Ladies Beach Society who run an unusual investigation of their very own. Ally and Ava play and drink hard mostly on Wednesday outings to the beach at Ocean City but will they both be somehow inspired to change? It just might take a tragedy, sorry to say! Ally has a neighbor Margo who seems to be a busy body but is she really? Along the way there is an exciting rescue by the U.S. Coast Guard which saves a tragedy beyond compare! Ava’s husband died a few years back, but what possible mischief could Ally’s and Margo’s veteran husbands possibly get into? Ava is living with her son and his bride to be; sounds like a precarious situation to me. It all works out and who doesn’t love a gorgeous wedding? The locations are as important as the characters in this wonderful book. The setting starts out in Vineland in south New Jersey, the Garden State, to Ocean City and the Atlantic Ocean and a storm is coming! There are a few other interesting sites along the way playing their roles for a fun and exciting read! I give you a list of 32 characters in the book to understand who’s who as you navigate your way to an enjoyable fantasy read! At the very end of the book a suspenseful cliffhanger and leads to the sequel, Sugar Cane, Spider Monkey and Shark!Mary J. C. Runkel is from Youngstown, Ohio and grew up in Liberty Township. She attended Liberty School System and graduated from Liberty High School. Mary majored in English while attending Youngstown State University for one year and Kent State University for three years. Mary’s interests were always to be an author but her career of thirty years; three were in banking and twenty-one were at DFCU Financial, formerly Dearborn Federal Credit Union. During her career she did use her writing skills along with math in Accounting to earn a position in management. After retiring Mary enjoys watercolor painting and being a spokesperson for a Facebook site once again using her writing skills and sharing her love of photography and poetry.
