by Fannie Flagg
First published 2010
Maggie Fortenberry once competed for Miss America and dreamed of living in an elegant Red Mountain home with a perfect family. Now she works as a real estate agent at Red Mountain Realty in Birmingham, Alabama. Since the agency's legendary founder Hazel Whisenknott died five years ago, business has collapsed. Rival agent Babs Bingington wants to destroy Maggie completely. Maggie's best friend and business partner Brenda Peoples thinks Maggie has life easy, while cranky office manager Ethel Clipp with her purple hair despises their competition. When circumstances become desperate, Maggie devises what she believes is the perfect solution to all her problems. As she prepares to execute her plan, unexpected events reveal that everyone around her harbors secrets. Through these discoveries, Maggie uncovers truths about her past and the people in her life that change everything she thought she knew.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Alabama, Birmingham, Red Mountain
Period: 21st-century
315 pages · Hardcover · Random House