Dixie Divas

Dixie Divas Mysteries, Book 1

By: Virginia Brown

Narrated by: Karen Commins

Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

"You found my philandering ex-husband?" Bitty asked. "Where? Mexico? Paris? In Tupelo with a cocktail waitress?"

"In your closet," I answered. "Dead."

Break out the hoop skirts and the zinfandel. The Divas are on the case.

Wine. Chocolate. Transvestite strippers. Just another good-time get-together for the Dixie Divas of historic Holly Springs, Mississippi, where moonlight and magnolias mingle with delicious small-town scandal. But Eureka "Trinket" Truevine, the newest Diva, gets more than she bargained for when she finds her best Diva girlfriend Bitty Hollandale's ex-husband in Bitty's hall closet. He's dead. Very dead. Now Trinket and the Divas have to help Bitty finger the murderer and clear her name.

Virginia Brown is the nationally acclaimed, award-winning author of 50 novels.

©2009 Virginia Brown (P)2012 BelleBooks, Inc.

Why Sugar, I do declare....

If you could sum up Dixie Divas in three words, what would they be?

Sugar, Accents, and Plot

What did you like best about this story?

The wit of Biddi is an amazing thing I personally want to emulate. Putting someone down without them evening knowing it, or at least watching them catch on and wonder if you really meant what you said...now that is a true southern belle talent. Don't hate me because I want to hone my skill even more after reading about Biddi's talents.

The narrator made the story completely. When I think of all the times I have said "Bless Her Heart" and "Hissy Fit" along with any other strictly southern slang, let's just say that I am an amateur compared to these Belles.

What about Karen Commins’s performance did you like?

Karen Commin's accents and pace were perfect. If you don't have a southern accent by nature, it is not something that you can usually mimic in a believable manner (ie. take Julia Roberts in a number of her movies). That said, I am a believer and if Karen is not from the south, well we might as well say "Welcome Home Damn Yankee" and we'll grant her citizenship below the Mason Dixon line.

Read/listen to the book. Although you may get lost in the characters from time to time (as there are quite a few) the main characters are easy to distinguish because the narrator keeps their accents clearly differentiated. You will love it right down to its rotten potatoes.

Great book

What did you love best about Dixie Divas?

Was like listening to my southern kinfolk. I thoroughly enjoyed and laughed a lot :)

What about Karen Commins’s performance did you like?

She got the accent right and did not overdo.

Meh.

This was not as great as I thought it would be. The narration was terrible and did not fit the characters in the book.

Enjoyed, but took a while...

Would you listen to Dixie Divas again? Why?

This book was enjoyable once you get past the narrator's voice, it just didn't seem like a good fit at first. However, after getting the know the main character, the narrators voice becomes a perfect fit.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The main character is my favorite but she takes some warming up to.

Ok

I really struggled to get through this one. The story idea was great and had a lot of potential but I felt like it was too drug out and a lot longer than necessary. The narrator did a great job I enjoyed listening to her

Good

Southern Belles they are not, they enjoy their wine, and being a little bit on the wild since. Had some good one liners to laugh and enjoy. Mostly girls getting together and finding a dead body here and there.
Given Arc audio for my voluntary review and my honest opinion
Narration was good

Slow moving chick lit mystery

I was prepared to sit down and enjoy a somewhat fluffy mystery but not prepared to endure every cliche and stereotype about the South imaginable. What was probably intended to be humorous was instead only tiring. Enough, already!

Almost nothing happens for the first two-thirds of the book, at which point the action starts to pick up. Still, it's pretty slow until the last hour or so of listening.

I will say that by the end I started to develop a fondness for the characters in spite of myself. I draw the line at the awful Pug, though.

As luck would have it, I bought this and the second two novels in this series on an audible sale so, one down, two to go. They will be walking companions for a while.

Too Fluffy

I like light mysteries but this is just fluff. The plot was ridiculous and the characters annoying. One of the main characters, who was the murder suspect, never took anything series. I also find it far fetched that someone inv loved in a murder case would make all of her friends accessories after the fact and that they would be willing to be a participate. The book just didn't make since. Do not buy this book. It wasn't even funny. After lisstening to half of the book I finally skipped to the end. Even that was a waste of time. Don't bother with one.

Good Story Line - Narrator is horrible

The story line is good - but the narrator is depressing and horrible. I would pass on it.

Descriptive

What would have made Dixie Divas better?

more store and less descriptions I found we were up to chapter 9 and I knew very little about the mystery and TONS of little details about stuff that were not part of the story. It was like listening to a friend tell a story that would never end.