Proving true friendship can create fierce family ties, Ball's exceptional sequel to 2009's A Year on Ladybug Farm
updates the trials, tribulations and triumphs of three single women of a certain age struggling to renovate Blackwell Farms, a rundown Virginia estate. A year has passed since Lindsay Wright, Cici Burke and Bridget Tindale arrived from Baltimore to live on the farm. Adding joy and sometimes frustration to the household are crusty old housekeeper Ida Mae; Cici's 20-year-old daughter Lori, who doesn't want to return to college in California; and Noah Clete, a fatherless 15-year-old Lindsay wants to adopt. Ball's bright examination of their efforts to rehab a place that was burned down during the Civil War, rebuilt, and then served as a winery, a home for WWII military wives and a creamery known for its cheeses, is absolutely delectable. Injecting extra zing are Ball's fascinating flashbacks, while Noah's transformation from misfit to responsible teen is another sweet note in this entertaining treatise of how love overcomes adversity. (Oct.)
