Book Review: Magnolia Nights by Ashley Farley

Magnolia Nights

By Ashley Farley

Amazon

From the author of the best-selling Sweeney Sister Series and Sweet Tea Tuesdays comes a new novel of passion, intrigue, and redemption.

Ellie Pringle has spent endless hours and countless dollars working with a therapist to remember the lost years of her childhood. She’s baffled and more than a little intrigued when the grandmother she hasn’t seen in thirty-four years dies and leaves her a fortune. The time has come to face her past in person. Still reeling from a recent breakup of a long-term relationship, and with nothing to keep her in San Francisco, Ellie packs her meager belongings and boards a plane for the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Standing in the entryway of her grandmother’s antebellum home on South Battery Street in Charleston, Ellie faces the first of many ghosts who will soon haunt her. On her first night in the creepy, creaking mansion, as she’s perusing the titles in a dusty bookcase, she comes across her deceased mother’s leather-bound journal. Her mother’s words create more unanswered questions and send her on a quest to find more journals. As Hurricane Irma bears down on the South Carolina coast, Ellie encounters Juan Hagood, a handsome architect who has the talent to restore her dilapidated mansion and the charm to mend her broken heart. But as Ellie reads her mother's diaries, they dislodge a stone in the wall that safeguards her memories, causing her world to come crumbling down. Revelations about her childhood lead Ellie on a harrowing journey of discovery that will hold spellbound until the dramatic conclusion.

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

Her eyes convict and sentence you to death before you’ve even committed the crime.

My Review:

Magnolia Nights was an unexpected yet captivating departure from the previous works I have read by Ashley Farley.  I loved her Sweeney Sisters series and I was pleasantly surprised by the somewhat eerie, intriguing, and mysterious Magnolia Nights.  The storyline was unpredictable and engaging, and it certainly piqued my curiosity and kept me a bit on edge from beginning to end.  The tale was well-crafted and full of twists and turns as well as heaving with an eclectic cast of characters that included the endearingly flawed main character of Ellie who is struggling to recover her childhood memories as well as secondary characters who were more than bit eccentric, bizarre, and chillingly devious.  The storyline could best be classified as women’s fiction that entails mystery, family drama, romance, suspense, and maybe even a restless spirit if the housekeeper were to be believed.  I was quickly pulled into the tale and had a hard time putting my Kindle down.  I am eager to see what Ms. Farley does next. 

Empress DJ

About the Author




Ashley Farley writes books about women for women. Her characters are mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives facing real-life issues. Her goal is to keep you turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning. If her story stays with you long after you've read the last word, then she's done her job.

After her brother died in 1999 of an accidental overdose, she turned to writing as a way of releasing her pent-up emotions. She wrote SAVING BEN in honor of Neal, the boy she worshipped, the man she could not save.

Ashley is a wife and mother of two young adult children. While she’s lived in Richmond, Virginia for the past 21 years, part of her heart remains in the salty marshes of the South Carolina Lowcountry where she grew up. Through the eyes of her characters, she’s able to experience the moss-draped trees, delectable cuisine, and kind-hearted folks with lazy drawls that make the area so unique.

Visit her website at http://www.ashleyfarley.net for more information. Or sign up for her newsletter using this link: http://ashleyfarley.net/get-your-free...