Loraine Despres Boeken

Belle Cantrell grapples with guilt after killing her husband, a feeling she despises. A lady shouldn't act in ways that lead to remorse, a rule she holds dear. Set in 1920, during prohibition and the fight for women's suffrage, this tale unfolds in Gentry, Louisiana, where Belle, a beautiful young widow with a rebellious spirit, faces societal constraints. After being jailed for swimming in an indecent costume with suffragists, she realizes life as an unmarried woman is fraught with challenges. Though she knows the rules of propriety, Belle often finds herself bending or breaking them because they all seem to say "Don't." After mourning for a year and a half, she decides it's time to embrace life, igniting a tumultuous season that will alter her and her town forever. With a blend of humor and memorable characters, this story is a comic love tale that also explores Belle's quest for her moral compass as she confronts forces threatening her community and loved ones.

It's a steamy June afternoon in Louisiana, circa 1956, and Sissy LeBlanc is sitting on her front porch, wondering -- half seriously -- if she could kill herself with aspirins and Coca-Cola. She's been living in stifling old Gentry since the day she was born and trapped in a sham of a marriage to PeeWee LeBlanc since she was only seventeen. In short, she's fed up, restless, and ready for an adventure. Sissy just never imagined temptation would come into her life that breathless summer day as she sat smoking on her porch swing. For although she may have been fixated on the taut muscles of the lineman shimmying down the telephone pole across the street, she hadn't allowed herself to imagine that he'd be none other than her high school sweetheart, Parker Davidson, who left town fourteen years before without so much as a wave good-bye. But suddenly, here he is, leaning in for a kiss that will stir up more excitement than Sissy could ever have imagined...