Southern beauty queens and dark secrets rule Beverly Brandt?s whimsical fifth novel. Georgia Elliot grew up in the small town of Ocean Sands, Mississippi, where everyone knows a little about everyone. A former beauty queen who runs a gift shop and has a secret life as an inventor, Georgia finds solace in the Tiara Club, a small group of recovering beauty queens. They help conceal her identity as inventor of the hottest new kitchen gadget, the Miracle Chef, from her controlling, appearances-are-everything mother when Daniel Rogers, a TV show host, comes to Ocean Sands to tape a segment about the Miracle Chef. Intrigued by Georgia, Daniel looks into her past and uncovers hints of everyone?s darkest secrets. As the love grows deeper between Daniel and Georgia, she begins to make amends with her past, while the Tiara Club survives an explosive wedding and sees its only Yankee member win the Shrimp Queen Crown. Though it does little to break out of the genre?s constraints, Brandt?s novel is as breezy as they come and consistently entertaining. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Southern-fried chick-lit. Georgia Elliot is a founding member of the Tiara Club, a support group in small-town Mississippi for "recovering beauty queens." She's also an inventor, but she keeps that passion to herself. Such a vocation is hardly appropriate for a well-bred lady, particularly one who learned deportment on the pageant circuit and whose mama, herself a pageant veteran, is the very embodiment of gentility. When Georgia gave a Miracle Chef--her finest creation--to her best friend, she just wanted to help a busy single mother put food on the table, but friend Callie's appreciation for this kitchen marvel--she has no idea her friend invented it--goes a little too far for Georgia's liking: Callie writes a letter about the Miracle Chef to the host of a cooking show, and he comes to Ocean Sands to challenge the wonder appliance to a cook-off. Unfortunately for Georgia, not only does TV gourmet Daniel Rogers know her secret (he found out through some nifty research at the U.S. Patent Office Website), but he's a Yankee, and he's gorgeous. Yes, this plotline is farcical in both its complexity and its improbability, and, yes, a romance between star-crossed Georgia and Daniel is clearly inevitable, but Brandt (four previous mass-market titles) turns this potentially trite material into a charming, funny and big-hearted entertainment. It would have been easy for Brandt to people her story with a generically colorful cast of slapstick rubes and Southern eccentrics, but, instead, she creates a vivid community populated by unique and believable characters. The Tiara Club is an inviting bunch, as are the other inhabitants of Ocean Sands; Georgia is a thoroughly appealing heroine, and Daniel is the perfect match both for her sass and smarts. Romantic comedy below the Mason-Dixon Line: fast-paced, funny and as sweet as iced tea. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Georgia Elliot belongs to the Tiara Club, so named because the members are former pageant winners. All live in the small southern town of Ocean Sands, Mississippi, where everyone not only knows everyone else but also their entire family histories back to the Civil War and beyond. Nothing is secret, except that in her hidden attic laboratory, Georgia is an inventor. Now her Miracle Chef, created for a Tiara Club member who has no time to cook, works so well that the host of a cooking show, Daniel Rogers, challenges the Miracle Chef to a cook-off. Then, when he shows up in Ocean Sands looking for the inventor, Georgia's world begins to spin off its axis. She has no intention of ever revealing she's an inventor, but even as she tries to sabotage the cook-off, the attraction between her and Daniel can't be denied, and eventually all kinds of secrets are exposed. Funny and touching and full of wonderful characters, Brandt's inventive romance is as irresistible as a mint julep. --Maria Hatton Copyright 2005 Booklist