Well, darn! I started this book and loved how beautifully every thing was described, I thought I would love it.
But then Renata started learning her family's secrets and I liked it less and less.

I'm going to use some spoilers so I can share my thoughts.

Renata thinks her boyfriend has cheated, she goes home to visit her grandmother and decides to open the Pandora's box.
It seems like Renata's issues with men stem back to her childhood issues with her dad.

Her dad acts like he doesn't love her. Seriously,it's not bad enough that he barely talks to her, but then he actually accuses her of attempting to kill his fiancée?

There was never a justification good enough, in my opinion, for why her dad is not nice to her. Because him and Renata's mom had major drama? Nope, not good enough.

Then add in that the characters are telling Renata these extremely scandalous stories for the very first time, about her parents, grandparents and family friends. But Renata never responds when they're talking. They are describing every food and drink they consumed 30 years ago, they are giving very descriptive details about her parents' love lives and Renata is just sitting there peacefully listening to it all?

I'll give the author credit for the ability to write a very descriptive story, I'm just bummed that it went from a story I thought I'd love to a story I was anxious to finish. ( )

A nice, light summer read. It's a two-dayer, so easy and breezy. A little formulaic, but sometimes a reader needs that. ( )

Renata DeChavannes is reeling from personal loss. She runs home to her grandmother in Alabama, seeking answers to questions about her mother.

I don't have a lot to say except that I can't help but feel like this has been done before. Younger generation, digging in the past, looking for parents' secrets. Sound familiar? I'm thinking of [b:Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood|137791|Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood|Rebecca Wells|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172090847s/137791.jpg|1010054], and this book is nowhere near as good as that one.

I liked most of the present-day characters. Renata was pretty funny, but apparently pretty dense, but Honora, Gladys, and Isabella were tons of fun. Unfortunately, they weren't really the focus of the story. The focus is on Renata's mother Shelby and her broken relationship with Renata's father, Louie. Everyone talks about Shelby like the only reason she didn't walk on water was because she didn't want to, but once the past starts coming out, I couldn't stand her.

I really don't get what was up with Renata. She's about 30 years old, but you would think that she was five. She seems to know absolutely nothing about family history, even when she's directly involved. An explanation was given, but it was pretty weak. And everyone's supposed to be telling her these old family stories, but when they start talking, it's like Renata's not even there. Instead of, "You weren't a very pretty baby," it's "Renata wasn't a very pretty baby." What's up with that?

The chapters float around between several of the present-day characters. Some of them are titled, "Honora says..." and that made it pretty clear who was talking. But sometimes that was left off and I would think Renata was telling a story only to find out that it was her father. Confusing.

I'm making this sound bad, and it really wasn't. It was decent but forgettable. If it sounds like something you're interested in though, go ahead and dig in. It's not book to regret reading. It's just a book that I'll forget. ( )

Author Michael Lee West is one of the south’s treasures as she’s shown with her previous works set amongst the live oaks and Spanish moss. Mermaids in the Basement is a worthy addition to her funny and convoluted tales of the modern day south and the resilient (and sometimes off-beat) women who live there.

No blowsy magnolia blossom, screenwriter Renata is down and depressed by her mother and step-father’s unexpected death in a plane crash several months prior to the opening of the story. She has a distant and superficial relationship with her father, who is about to marry a very young trophy wife. Her writer’s block is flaring up even as the latest deadline on a crap screenplay is due. And to cap it all off, she sees a tabloid showing her boyfriend, a successful director, in a clinch with the latest Hollywood “It girl” on location in Ireland. After an unproductive call to boyfriend Ferg, a few too many drinks, a bonfire, and alcohol-inspired Fed-Exing, all of which turn out to have been Bad Ideas, Renata finds a letter from her mother marked to be read only in case of an emergency. This letter drives Renata’s flight to her paternal grandmother’s home in coastal Alabama to find out the truth behind her parents' life together. Once home, matriarch and grande dame Honora, former nanny Gladys, and long-time family friend and former actress Isabelle conspire to help Renata find the steel in her backbone, share the skeletons in the family closet with her, and show her that her future, while anchored on the past, can be made to suit the person she is becoming.

Filled with grand parties, shocking revelations, and more side plots than you can shake a stick at, West has created her trademark eccentric but entirely believable characters and plot. She has a way with the turn of a phrase that sometimes doesn't dawn on the reader until they are a paragraph further on but will still elicit a bark of laughter. This is a snappy, witty, and fun read that sucks you and and doesn't let you go, through both the unconventional, crazy happenings and the more mundane. And it will make you a bit sad you don't have characters like this in your real life, because honey, you know they'd take you for some wild ride. An easy, smooth read, West does tackle some heavier topics than calling this a breezy romantic novel would suggest. And she handles them deftly, not allowing them to destroy the light touch of the whole. This is one I definitely recommend. ( )

Imagine finding evidence that your boyfriend, an up and coming movie director, was cheating on you with one of his starlets through a gossip magazine. Imagine also that your mother Shelby and beloved step father just recently died in a plane crash, you’ve never had a good relationship with your recently engaged father Louie, and you’ve put on weight. If you can, you are imagining yourself in the same place as Renata DeChavannes, the heroine of Mermaids in the Basement. Her life seems to go to hell in a hand basket the moment she reads the gossip column. She is a successful screenwriter in her own right, until she lets her emotions get in the way of her head. When she finally decides to return to her hometown of Point Clear, Alabama, she finds her grandmother Honora and her friends ready, willing, and able to support her. They also finally decide to fill in the details of her childhood. With Can discovering the secrets surrounding her mother and Shelby’s relationship to Louie and his family give her the strength she needs to pick up the pieces?

Mermaids in the Basement had a distinctly Southern feel. Honora, Isabella and Gladys are much what you would expect from lifelong Southern friends. Honora is known for her wonderful parties, just as close family knows to avoid anything touched by Isabella beforehand. I enjoyed these women and their interactions with each other. They would be the type of women I would want to come home to when my world falls apart. As much as I enjoyed hearing about the past in their voice, this became confusing when the chapter titles didn’t indicate who was speaking. This wasn’t a huge hurdle, though. What I found more difficult was the bruhaha that occurred at the engagement party that Honora threw for Louie and his latest fiance shortly after Renata arrived in Alabama. Louie’s response fell flat for me. Despite the rift between them, I found it difficult to believe that Louie would ever consider his daughter responsible or, if an accident occurred, to deny it outright.

Overall, I enjoyed reading about Renata and her misadventures. The manner in which she loses her job had me laughing. It’s so typical that a scorned woman to cut her nose off to spite her face when trying to fight back against the other woman. Renata is someone with whom I would enjoy a friendship. This novel, however, would have worked better for me if Shelby and Louie’s story had been told in real time instead of being told from multiple points of view. I never really found much of the secrets surrounding Renata’s childhood all that compelling. Despite the family history, Renata was never that delicate a flower that she couldn’t have found out about those things. Perhaps if the only secret had been about why her father was absent would have sufficed. Then, the novel could have been more fully about a father and his daughter. As much as I loved Honora and Gladys especially, Renata and Louie’s relationship was the most solid part of the book. I found myself wanting more interaction between them and less of the slowly revealed family history.

http://literatehousewife.com/2009/02/141-mermaids-in-the-basement/ ( )