Arts
In the second novel in the Village of Primm series—The Peculiar Fate of Holly Banks—novelist Julie Valerie turns up the heat in her satirical domestic comedy of a wife, mother, and aspiring filmmaker who clings to the pursuit of perfection, only to have fate play with her plan at every turn. Julie and I discuss her heroine, Holly Banks, who soon discovers that her new neighborhood of über mommies have good reason to doubt that their highly coveted planned community is less than perfect—especially when a dark secret leads to some dire circumstances in their community. We also talk about Julie's insights on those parents in the book whose mission is giving their families a perfect life—and the pitfalls that make that impossible, even in a community that prides itself on premiere schools, perfect lawns, and in the case of the Village of Primm, the crowning glory of its topiary garden: a forty-foot peacock (peahen?) that turns out to be the ideal example of what can go wrong does go wrong. The Peculiar Fate of Holly Banks in Amazon Now. You can also order it through your local bookstore.