Violet Covington spends her life answering readers' queries with wise, witty advice in her popular newspaper column, Dear Sweetie. But right after she finds out her column is up for syndication, she arrives home to find her husband in bed with a neighbor. In If You Ask Me, the smart, warmhearted second novel from Libby Hubscher (Meet Me in Paradise), Violet (and Dear Sweetie) goes rogue while trying to handle situations that prove much more difficult off the page.
Raised to be a proper, polite Southern lady, with lipstick and perfectly sprayed hair as her armor, Violet nevertheless finds herself struggling to deal with her husband's betrayal and its implications for her life. An ill-advised bonfire brings her into contact with Dez, a firefighter who is new in town and seems almost too kind (and handsome) to be true. While Hubscher cooks up an engaging slow-burn romance, Violet's other relationships--with her mother, her colleagues and the friends who actually stick around--are equally realistic and sweet. Violet's boss and former college roommate, Kyra, strikes a healthy balance of compassion and tough love for her friend, while several other characters, including Violet's polished wedding-planner mother, are allowed to make their own mistakes and learn from them. Even Violet's husband, Sam, comes off as a human being rather than a cardboard cutout of a cheating partner.
If You Ask Me is a breezy, insightful and often laugh-out-loud funny story of a woman learning to confront life's messes, both the ones she inherits and the ones she chooses to make. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams