Red Cullen has been on her own since her mother threw her out when she was sixteen and pregnant. She kept the baby girl, and their first night out of the maternity ward, they slept under a bridge in San Antonio. Her daughter, Bridge, is now grown, divorced, has two children, and is an operating room specialist in Baghdad. The children's paternal grandmother has had the children, and Red rarely sees them. It's going to be a life-changing adjustment to take guardianship of nine-year-old Olivia and her younger brother, Daniel -- who has decided to speak only Spanish around his "abuela mala" which translates to bad grandmother.

Red has led a rough life and has had to do things she's not proud of to support herself and Bridge. She now owns "Red's Hot Honky-Tonk Bar" and makes enough to pay her bills. She lives in an efficiency apartment in back of the bar, and this is where she brings the children. They are as unhappy with the situation as Red is frustrated. Cameron "Cam" Smith Early is a fiddler in a Western band and is currently Red's boy-toy. Cam knows nothing about Red's past and doesn't care. Red expects him to walk away like everyone else in her life has, but this guy has staying power. He is crazy about the kids and their granny, so she can't even push him away, and he gives her a chance to live a life beyond her wildest dreams.

This reviewer was either laughing out loud like a hyena, choking down a lump in the throat, or outright crying while rapidly turning the pages of this magnificent story. In my humble opinion there is no other author in today's market that writes as beautifully and emotionally about family dynamics as Pamela Morsi. This author writes about real people, warts and all, which you want to embrace, comfort, and have for a best friend. RED'S HOT HONKY- TONK BAR is possibly one of the best books of the summer and one which comes highly recommended.

Book Summary

Unruly Red knows she's no one's idea of a sweet old granny. But with one long-distance phone call, the fortysomething bar owner with the tattoos and tight jeans is suddenly responsible for two young grandchildren she hardly knows.

Red's rowdy friends, late-night lifestyle and tiny apartment above her San Antonio saloon definitely aren't kidproof. And Red's pretty sure the hot young fiddle player she's been dallying with will run for the hills when he learns she has a daughter, let alone grandkids.

But Red is about to learn that age doesn't necessarily come with wisdom. That a nine-year-old girl can be as exacting as the strictest parent. That the school of hard knocks never had bake sales. And that her boy toy is more of an adult than she is.

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