cover image Ain't No Valley

Ain't No Valley

Sharon Ewell Foster, . . Bethany House, $12.99 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-7642-2886-5

In this follow-up to Ain't No Mountain and its predecessor, Ain't No River , Foster pens a sassy tale full of African-American slang. This time, the story line revolves around Mary and Moor's California wedding and two of their friends, the newly unemployed Anthony and Naomi. Anthony rather improbably wanders to Napa Valley in search of Sly ("and the Family") Stone's brother Freddy, hoping to indulge a teen fantasy by finding the rock star. Equally improbably, Naomi hits the jackpot on Wheel of Fortune , but her absence from work results in her losing her job. While she waits to collect her game show money, she meets Ruthie, a teenage waif who teaches her how to "glean" food for free (vague echoes of the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi). Meanwhile, Foster brings readers up to speed on earlier series characters in Maryland and North Carolina as they make their plans to attend the wedding. Too many characters, places, points of view and plot lines confuse, but Foster somehow glues everything together. Readers will get tired of hearing about Thelma's blue eyes, and Foster can't resist sermonizing toward the end, but there's plenty of fun to be had. Foster's fans should embrace her latest. (Aug.)