Book Review: IN A JAM by Cindy Dorminy

One of the wonderful and unexpected happenings that resulted from signing with Red Adept Publishing for my culinary mystery series was the introduction to some fabulous new authors so I could fill up my Kindle even more. I will NEVER live long enough to read all the books this baby can hold. But enough about that.

Cindy Dorminy is one such RAP author I encountered. With a title like IN A JAM, how could a foodie-mystery guy like me not pick it up? Well, it’s not a mystery. But that’s okay. What’s not okay is not including the recipe for this fabulous, award-winning strawberry jam that Andie has to figure out. C’mon, Cindy! Give!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The story premise is one we’ve seen before: the protagonist can only inherit fabulous wealth if certain conditions are met. If not met, xxx inherits, in this case, the small church in small-town Georgia.

But this is not a trite retelling of a trope. Andie is, ahem, shall we say a flawed character. The opening lines of the book hooked me immediately:

“Some might consider waking up in the drunk tank rock bottom. I call it Thursday.”

Andie has all sorts of issues that need sorting, but she is content enough with her life and acquaintances. Her only real friends appear to be the cops who pick her up on Wednesdays and deposit her in the drunk tank and who bring her Dunkin’ Donuts’ dark roast coffee with a double shot of caramel. They like her and worry about her, especially Officer Tinsley, who sees in Andie what she can’t see in herself.

Yes, Andie is content enough until an attorney shows up with the news that her grandmother (whom she hadn’t seen in 20 years or so) died leaving her a coffee shop and her lottery winnings—her considerable lottery winnings.

All Andie has to do is stay sober for six weeks while running the coffee shop, attend church several times a week, fit in with the community, and enter the local fair’s jam contest. Easy peasy, Andie thinks. Breeze into town, put in her time, collect the money, sell the coffee shop, then breeze out of town.

Uh, not so much. That pesky jam recipe, for example, that she just can’t figure out with the clock ticking down to the contest. And “fitting in” is challenging when most of the town wants her to fail so the money goes to the church, the rightful beneficiary, in many minds.

Andie learns a great deal about herself during her six week “sentence” in Smithville, Georgia, and she comes to realize that that was her grandmother’s plan all along. To help and hinder Andie in the plan is a delightful ensemble cast of quirky, supportive, gossipy, toxic, and thoroughly engaging characters. Oh, and the handsome town police officer, directed by Officer Tinsley to monitor Andie, is just the gravy on the biscuit.

Confronting obstacle after obstacle, Andie builds her character pretty much from the ground up. She goes from an anchorless party girl to a caring and thoughtful young woman deserving of the respect she garners.

Cindy Dorminy, I hope there is a sequel and that we learn more about Andie and her renewed life. Oh, and the sequel better have that strawberry jam recipe with the secret ingredient!