Done: "Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane" by Kelly Harms

Done: The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane by Kelly Harms, 2013, 9781250011381.

Committee book.  Chick book.  Feel good book.  Cooking book.  Romance book.  Humorous bits book.  I enjoyed it.

Janine Brown #1's great aunt Midge enters her in to a house sweepstakes.  Janine #1 is a self-imposed shut-in.  Janine has developed severe stranger anxiety and can barely speak to people.  She breaks out in hives when around new people.  She has been this way since her fiance Ned died.  88-year-old Midge puts her house on the market (was it Cedar Falls or somewhere else in Iowa?), they pack up their belongings and drive to the new home in Maine.

Janine Brown #2 entered the sweepstakes on her own and is so damn sure to win she cracks her violent, deadbeat boyfriend over the head with a coffee mug to stop him from yanking her hair and interfering with the live television announcement.  Janine #2 drives boyfriend's car to the bus stations and starts over to Maine.

Well, Janine #1 is the rightful winner.  Janine #2 heard her name on TV and drove right off.  Janine #2 can be impulsive.  Janine #1 and #2 meet.  #2, called Nean, is upset she is so damn wrong.  Nean starts staying in the huge seaside house after Aunt Midge takes pity on penniless Nean and Nean tells tall tale of being wanted by the cops.

Things happen.  Janine is in her early thirties and after Ned's death has spent several years shutting herself in her small apartment and constantly cooking new and obscure dishes.  Janine eats her dinner and throws the rest out.  Janine loves the massive new kitchen and the many and varied appliances.

Nean loves living in a real house and not having to depend on a convenient boyfriend to have a roof over her head.  Nean is a former foster kid with no money and has class issues.  She starts learning to bake.  Nean and Janine start to talk.  Janine begins coming out of her shell and Nean starts to relax.

Things happen.  Nean is hot for the gardner.  Janine is hot for guy who grows produce for the local shelter.  Midge is hot for everyone.  Not a lot of conflict.  Romantic tension and worry.  Many cooking scenes.  Wine.  One dead great aunt. One of those fancy-schamncy endless pools that generate a current you can swim against.  Everyone lives happily ever after.

 Comments:
1.  I wish I had one of those fancy-schmancy pools.  I remember when I first read about those several years ago.  Even if I had the money I'd no place to fit it though.  I think the overall height made it too big for basement.  I'd be stroking my arms up out of the water and hitting the floor struts above me.  Never mind the splashing.  Stupid house.
2.  Not much made of Maine except for some seafood and lobster.
3.  Humor. 
4.  Some sex.
5.  Foolish overreactions driven by pride and fear.
6.  The talk about baking bread did motivate me to try out our breadmaker.  Something I'd been intending to do and never got to until yesterday.