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The Bookworm Gets Lost in 'Looking for Trouble'

“Looking for Trouble” by Trice Hickman
c.2013, Kensington Dafina $15.00 336 pages

Oh, how you wish you had it so you could reach back in time and spend another hour with your great-great-grandmother. You could ask her questions, find out about her life, learn about yourself and ask for advice.

Imagine the things your forebears would tell you – then imagine how it would change your life if they did.

In the new book “Looking for Trouble” by Trice Hickman, a little guidance from the past is a welcome thing.

Alexandria Thornton tried to fight it. She had always known that she had a “gift.”

As a little girl, she played with spirit-children and she was always able to predict the future. But lately, an older woman’s voice came to her ears and it was loudly insistent, telling Alexandria that someone was going to protect her.

Protect her from what, Alexandria didn’t know. Maybe from her own heart, which surely needed help these days. Her boyfriend, Peter, was Mr. Wrong and there was nobody else on the horizon. Maybe, she thought, if she could tame this person in her head, she would know what the heck was so important.

Meanwhile, John Smalls wondered if his girlfriend, Madeline, was The One. Sometimes he thought she might be.

She was the total package: smart, beautiful, elegant and good in bed. Then again, she could be demanding, bossy and crass. Now they were in John’s South Carolina hometown to see his family and he had a feeling he’d find out about the real Madeline soon enough.

And he was right – Madeline did nothing but complain and she was rude to his parents. He knew his mother didn’t like her. He was sure his grandmother wouldn’t either – and Grandma Allene’s opinion was the one that really mattered.

Allene Small stood on her front porch and stared into space and time. She didn’t like that evil woman her grandson brought home. That woman was trouble, and Allene wasn’t having any of that. She also knew her great-great-granddaughter would need help too, someday, but reaching that child surely wouldn’t be easy.

It would be several generations before Alexandria was even born.

“Looking for Trouble” is a huge novel, not in page count but in storyline.

The author sweeps through several decades in this romantic tale of a family united by a “gift” that is only granted to certain female members and that is only partially understood.

Overall the characters here are good (if also a little predictable) and the plot is unusual, although it does sometimes get too convenient and a bit silly. Still I’m happy to say that I couldn’t predict what was going to happen next and I liked where Hickman took me.

This book is not like other paranormal romances but, like others in its genre, it asks you to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy – which isn’t hard to do here.

So look for a place to settle in and grab “Looking for Trouble.” Getting lost in this story won’t take but a minute.
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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 12,000 books. Her self-syndicated book reviews appear in more than 260 newspapers.

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