Miss Julia's School of Beauty

By: Ann B. Ross

Narrated by: Cynthia Darlow

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

With her phenomenally popular Miss Julia series, author Ann B. Ross has graced the New York Times and other best seller lists on her way to capturing the hearts of her many dedicated fans. Miss Julia, a graceful Southern lady with impeccable manners and a penchant for problem solving, has become a beloved heroine for countless admirers.

Hazel Marie, former lover of Miss Julia's late husband, needs assitance in staging a beauty contest to determine who will reign as Miss Abbot County Sheriff's Department. Enter Miss Julia. She has plenty of advice for the contestants about maintaining their poise, showcasing their charm, and perfecting their stage presence. But as she does her best to help the women, Miss Julia is forced to face concerns over her complicated relationship with her gentleman friend, Sam.

Refreshing and comical, Miss Julia's School of Beauty is another good-natured gem from Ann B. Ross.

©2005 Ann B. Ross (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"The Miss Julia series is an audiophile's dream; the novels seem to have been created just for audio." (The Denver Post)

Can't Finish It

I know there are probably many people out there who won't agree with me, but I found this book incredibly annoying and the plot line silly. The reader's Southern accent made my skin crawl (and being from Georgia, that takes alot), and I found the plot line about Miss Julia's marriage to be unrealistic - I felt like the character was completely from the 50's, but set in present day (and to me, not in an entertaining way). I've been trying for a month to listen to the whole thing and still have over half of the book to go. I seem to always find an excuse not to listen to this book/reader - I have a new CD that I like, or the dog needs attention, or the toilet needs cleaning...
Try it if you want to, but I would definitely recommend listening to the preview first to see if you can stand the bad Southern accents. I wouldn't recommend this book though.

Fun Story

As always, Miss Julia takes us for a fun tride twisting this way and that with all the great regular characters and quirkie plots. I can always count on Julia Springer and gang to keep me interested and smiling.

Married at last!!!!

This is one of my favorites in the series. Miss Julia and her "extended family" have become a part of my life....seriously!! Love you Ann Ross. You absolutely may not retire....ever!!

Miss Julia's School of Beauty

Loved this installment of the Miss Julia books. ..very funny, enjoyable read....narrator Cynthia Darlow is perfect.

Terrible!

What would have made Miss Julia's School of Beauty better?

I really loved the 1st book and was excited about the next one I could find on audio....this was it. Unfortunately the narrator changed and this changed the entire story for me. I did not like the way the narrator portrayed the stars in this series and I tried really hard to get past it. I had to stop half way through the book and will not order any more since the narrator remains the same as this one.

What do you think your next listen will be?

something else

How could the performance have been better?

Narrator

What character would you cut from Miss Julia's School of Beauty?

Narrator

Loved every minute of this series!

What did you love best about Miss Julia's School of Beauty?

A nice easy listen, enjoyable and made me laugh. Loved every one and was sorry when I got the the last book.

Enjoyed the pageant but…

Thought the whole bit about losing Sam was silly and repetitious. Least fave of the series.

Not my favorite

As always the narration was great. Cynthia Darlow is the perfect voice for all the characters.

Miss Julia is wearing a little thin. Too ridiculous about losing Sam. The storyline irritated the hell out of me

Miss Julia

Maybe I was just in the right frame of mind, but I thought the story was just adorable. I’ll listen to it again.

A little too hard to believe, but fun

In Miss Julia’s School of Beauty by Ann B. Ross, Miss Julia has just returned from her honeymoon after eloping with her former lawyer, Sam, to the dismay of others in her town upset at not being invited to a large wedding. Then, a friend tells Miss Julia that the tabloids are reporting that country music star Sonny Sutton had discovered that his marriage at a wedding chapel in Dollywood was not legal because the preacher did not have legal authority to perform weddings. Miss Julia begins to fear that perhaps her own marriage might not be legal either, and she might have been living in sin! So she kicks Sam out of her bedroom, while terrified that someone in her community might learn her deep, dark secret. So Sam goes on the road to find out the truth behind their marriage.

In the meantime, the sheriff’s department, in an effort to raise money for a second dog for their K-9 squad, decides to hold a beauty pageant. Hazel Marie, the former longtime mistress of Miss Julia’s first husband and mother of his son, Little Lloyd, gets involved as organizer of the event, along with Edda May, who seems to be chasing after Sam and makes Miss Julia very jealous. So Miss Julia gets busy helping with the pageant too. But she gets even more involved when she gets a phone call from Aaron Kincaid, the false preacher, boasting that he has been called by the Holy Ghost and doesn’t need the approval of the state and threatening to tell the world the truth unless his niece wins the beauty pageant. The problem? Ashley is plain and sloppy and, even worse, has dropped out of the pageant! Thus, Miss Julia has her work set out for her, getting Ashley back into the pageant and able to win.

I really loved the previous book, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, so my high expectations for Miss Julia’s School of Beauty influenced my disappointment in this one. The parts about the beauty pageant were a lot of fun, but despite the fact that the book’s official description talks solely about the pageant, the majority of the book deals with Miss Julia’s concern over the state of her marriage and paranoia that someone would learn that she had been living in sin with Sam. This part did not resonate at all with me because I cannot understand why Miss Julia thinks that the fraud of the preacher casts shame on her. Her behavior related to this issue seems so strange.

I really loved the narration of Cynthia Darlow, who is so lively that she makes this book much more enjoyable than I imagine it would be reading physically. She has a terrific voice for each character, and she wouldn’t even have to name the person speaking for me to know exactly who the lines belong to. Darlow was the perfect fit for this book.

While I did not enjoy Miss Julia’s School of Beauty as much as the previous book, the author’s enjoyable storytelling style made much of it terrific fun, and though the other parts were less enjoyable, I still enjoyed this book. I certainly intend to get the next book in the series. But because of my annoyance with Miss Julia’s obsession on the state of her marriage, I give this book three stars.