Addy Lipton is a third-grade teacher who feels she’s living a third-rate life with a marriage that hasn’t lived up to her hopes. The garage door represents everything that’s wrong with her marriage. Behind it is the Kingdom of Krap, all the stuff that captures her husband Lucky’s attention instead of the “stuff” Addy wants to talk about: their relationship. Her compulsion to drive her Toyota right through the garage door into the Kingdom of Krap is thwarted but not quelled when Lucky wins a company sales contest and a trip to Costa Rica that Addy hopes will rejuvenate their relationship. But fate has other plans. An accident lands Lucky flat on his back, requiring back surgery, and then extended rehab and recovery. Addy juggles new care-giving responsibilities with trying to decide whether her relationship with Lucky is worth salvaging in Kris Radish’s Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA.
Addy and Lucky are surrounded by caring friends and neighbors – Addy’s sister, Hell (which must be short for hell-on-wheels); her spa and abs-crunching gal pals, the Sweat-Hers; and Lucky’s cul-de-sac buddies Bob One and Two. They begin what seems to be a simple reach-out-and-care plan to help Addy and Lucky transition from the hospital to home. In the process, virtually the whole town of Parker becomes involved as the couple rediscovers the very best of love and courtship, separation and restoration, dating and friendship.
Radish unrolls a rollicking yet reflective read that adds to her robust repertoire of beloved fiction. (Can a reviewer really use that many “r’s” in one sentence?) When an author reaches out to draw you into her pages and the intimate lives of her characters, like Addy Lipton and her hapless husband Lucky, then what’s a reader to do but relish the ride.
Sandy Huseby writes from Fargo, North Dakota, and lakeside Minnesota. Visit her at prairiesunrising.blogspot.com.
