Rating: 
Summary: enjoyable cautionary tale
Review: A year has passed since Phoebe, Ness, Nance, and Beryl moved in together on Phoebe's California flower farm to help each other overcome or at least deal with health problems and bad relationships (see BAD GIRL CREEK). Phoebe is pregnant, but the father died in a car crash on their wedding day. Ness has been diagnosed as HIV positive. Nance is heading to the altar, as she will marry Phoebe's brother though she believes she still loves music reporter Rick. Beryl still recovers from accidentally killing her spouse, spending time in jail, and what seems to her is unrequited love for Earl.Maddy leaves Nebraska, ditching her singing partner boyfriend who is drunk one time to many, to visit Oklahoma City, where her twin sister died in the Bombing. She meets Rick and they make love before traveling together to Santa Fe. At a performance in Santa Fe Maddy meets Beryl and Earl. Together everyone goes to Bad Girl Creek for the wedding. In spite of the major flaws of the key nine characters that make up this baseball team, the cast is a sweet bunch struggling to overcome their problems through this loose association. The story line is fun and easy to read, but keep score because the changing points of view and the hard to distinguish much of the protagonists make for a difficult time remember who has what. Somewhat soap opera in nature, the middle tale of Jo-Ann Mapson's trilogy will delight her fans and those who desire a cautionary tale brimming with muted optimism. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Great Gal_Pal Book
Review: Although about half of the events in this book took place at the flower farm on the central California coast, much of it followed the travels of Mary Madigan and "Rotten Rick" as they wound their way west from Oklahoma to the coast. The reader knows that a connection will be made but not exactly how. I was glad to revisit the women of Bad Girl Creek and catch up on their lives. Poor Phoebe is dealing (and not very well) with a personal disaster while Beryl has moved to Alaska with Earl. Mapson must have great relationships with some really great girlfriends because she has wonderful insight into women's friendships and how women provide unquestioned support for each other. I love reading and getting lost in this author's stories. As one reviewer said, "you don't just read her books, you take up residence in them." This is so true....... I always feel like I am there, participating in the lives of the well-developed characters, feeling their joy and their pain. A great read that I hated to finish!
Rating:
Summary: Great Gal_Pal Book
Review: Although about half of the events in this book took place at the flower farm on the central California coast, much of it followed the travels of Mary Madigan and "Rotten Rick" as they wound their way west from Oklahoma to the coast. The reader knows that a connection will be made but not exactly how. I was glad to revisit the women of Bad Girl Creek and catch up on their lives. Poor Phoebe is dealing (and not very well) with a personal disaster while Beryl has moved to Alaska with Earl. Mapson must have great relationships with some really great girlfriends because she has wonderful insight into women's friendships and how women provide unquestioned support for each other. I love reading and getting lost in this author's stories. As one reviewer said, "you don't just read her books, you take up residence in them." This is so true....... I always feel like I am there, participating in the lives of the well-developed characters, feeling their joy and their pain. A great read that I hated to finish!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Book
Review: Bad Girl Creek, is a novel that consists on women managing a flower farm in California. The novel mostly focuses on Mary Madigan and the boy she meets in Oklahoma. This is a great novel to show the power of women and how they stay strong. This book is mostly a "chick" novel and many people will be able to relate to this novel. The feeling of this novel is very touching it is a book that makes you want to keep reading until the end and when its over you want more and more of it. During the climax you want to jump up and continue reading it because it is very interesting and suspenseful. This novel is a sequel and many say that sequels are never better then the original but this is a great sequel. I recommend this book to people that enjoy "chick" movies or novels. People that enjoy romance, adventure, and drama should defiantly read this novel. Although I do not know too much about the author, Jo-Ann Mapson seems to be a person with interesting thoughts. She really gives a good description of the girls and it makes you feel as if you know the girls and you are part of their life. If you are the type of people who are into mysterious, Scary, and non-dramatic novels you will most likely not like the novel. Overall I enjoyed this novel because I have never been into farming or knowing about girls farming and the trouble they go through, but I found this book interesting and I realized novels like these leave you wanting for more.
Rating: 
Summary: What Happened To The Bad Girls?
Review: Fans of "Bad Girl Creek", be forewarned - you won't spend much quality time with the Girls (Phoebe, Ness, Beryl and Nance) here. Mapson's quirky, multi-dimensional characters from her previous novel are little more than minor supporting players in "Along Came Mary". Touted as a sequel, it's mainly the back story of Rotten Rick, who was briefly mentioned in BGC as Nance's loathsome ex, and Mary Madigan, a talented but underacheiving drifter mourning the loss of her twin sister in the Oklahoma City bombing several years earlier. The two meet after Rick loses his dead end job at a music magazine and Mary Madigan (Maddy) ditches her loser boyfriend. They team up as road trip partners, as Rick pursues a career as a journalist, and Maddy tries to make a living singing on the open mike bar circuit, and form an odd relationship as lovers, but not quite friends. Exploring the dynamics of this unlikely pairing might have made for a good story if either Rick or Maddy were interesting or likeable characters. However, Rick was dull and Maddy was irritating (I was ready to throw the book across the room the next time she said the word "feck") and I never grew to like either one of them enough to care about what became of their relationship. In sharp contrast to the Rick/Maddy storyline were the chapters (sadly, very few) written from original Bad Girl Phoebe's point of view. My heart broke for Phoebe's loss of her first and only love, Juan. Her grief and her anger towards their unborn child were painfully realistic, but tempered by the love of the other Bad Girls as they rallied around to support her. It is in these few chapters, and a few journal entries written by Beryl, that we glimpse the spirit of the original book. However, the lack of any real focus on the other Girls (a subplot about about Nance's eating disorder is reduced to a few pages here and there, and there is virtually nothing of Ness) keeps this from being a true follow up to their story. Maddy and Rick are briefly brought together with the Girls through a chance meeting with Beryl. The unlikely friendship that sparks between them leads to Beryl urging Maddy to head out to Bad Girl Creek. Aha, one thinks, so Maddy will become the new Bad Girl. Nope! The new roommate hinted at in BGC doesn't appear until the very end. She, like the original four, promises to be a fascinating, multi-layered character - unfortunately, we don't see much of her before the focus jumps back to the tired Rick and Maddy saga. The chapters focusing on Phoebe give us a tantalizing hint of what a real sequel to BGC could have been, and earns the book the two stars of my rating. Stars are lost by the sheer disappointment caused by the near abandonment of my beloved Girls in favor of the boring Rick and Maddy. Here's hoping the third installment, "Goodbye Earl", will return to true Bad Girl form.
Rating:
Summary: girlfriend to girlfriend,
Review: girlfriend to girlfriend, I had a great time with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Can't Wait for Earl....
Review: Having read wilder Sisters, Bad Girl Creek and Now Along Came Mary I'm waiting not so patiently for Good Bye Earl! My favorite so far as been Bad Girl simply becuase I feel like I "Know" the characters...to me they are so typical of they way good friends see eachother, need eachother...and just know eachother. Mary was great with the added characters and dogs! Maybe someone will give me Earl for my birthday!!!
Rating:
Summary: It can't get any better than this novel
Review: I am a huge Mapson fan and was looking forward to her new book. What ended up happening with this one, like all the others, was that I couldn't put it down until I finished. The bad girls are back and better than ever, and surprisingly, "Rotten Rick" is also back! The setting, the problems (and resolutions) these women have, and the story of Rick and Maddy was just so well-written, it felt real to me. What I found the most interesting was the points of view it was written from--in "Bad Girl Creek," it alternated between the points of view of all the women; in this book, it took a different twist and alternated between Phoebe, Beryl, Rick, and Maddy. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about brave, feisty women and one man who eventually shows that he's not rotten. Definite two-plus thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: Another fantastic Mapson novel
Review: I never get tired of Jo-Ann Mapson's stories. Along Came Mary is just as touching, original and satisfying as all her novels have been. In this second book of the Bad Girl Creek trilogy she delves deeper into each of their lives as well as enlarging the clan by introducing a few new characters. I feel like these women are my friends and would love to continue following their lives as long as Ms. Mapson feels like writing about them. As always her lyrical language is a joy to read and her portrayal of setting makes me feel as if I were standing right next to Maddy at the rodeo or sitting next to Beryl making one of her lovely fruit salads. This is a wonderful, inspiring, joy-filled book. Buy one for yourself and another for a friend.
Rating:
Summary: I love these girls
Review: I think Jo-ann Mapson is one of the most under-rated writers around today. Her books are wonderful, and this story of a group of woman working and living at a flower farm in California is everything a book should be, it will make you cry, and laugh, and to feel that you actually know these women. I can't wait for the next one. I lay awake at nights wondering about them. Will Phoebs find another love, someone to share her life with, and will Ness continue to be well? Is Beryl going to stay in Alaska? Ms Mapson writes so well that I even devoured the acknowledgements at the back of the book, and I was not surprised to see mentioned Judi Hendricks and Jodi Picoult, two more fine writers. Keep up the good work, Jo-ann, I truely believe some writers are born, not made, and you are indeed a born writer.
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