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Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise
(Bright's Pond #2)
by
Newly widowed Charlotte Figg purchases a double-wide trailer sight unseen and moves to the Paradise Trailer Park with her dog, Lucky. Unfortunately, neither the trailer nor Paradise are what Charlotte expected. Her trailer is a ramshackle old place in need of major repair, and the people of Paradise are harboring more secrets than Bayer has aspirin. Charlotte's new friend
...more
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Paperback, 400 pages
Published
September 1st 2010
by Abingdon Press
(first published March 1st 2010)
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Start your review of Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise (Bright's Pond #2)

Got this as free Kindle download a long time ago. Started today and finished in a few hours (never even got around to marking it "currently reading" on my Goodreads bookshelf).
Like other reviewers have said, Magnin knows how to spin a yarn. She has a definite control over language. I personally found the story intriguing, which is why I downloaded it. I found it to be an easy read but fun, and also inspiring. Charlotte Figg and her motley crew remind me of people I actually know in real life ( ...more
Like other reviewers have said, Magnin knows how to spin a yarn. She has a definite control over language. I personally found the story intriguing, which is why I downloaded it. I found it to be an easy read but fun, and also inspiring. Charlotte Figg and her motley crew remind me of people I actually know in real life ( ...more

Newly widowed Charlotte Figg purchases double wide trailer, sight unseen, in the Paradise Trailer Park. The trailer is not what she expected though, it's run down and needs a lot of repairs, and was nothing like the picture in the ad, but she is stuck with it. She meets her neighbors, a quirky set of characters but they help her to get settled in Paradise and become her closest friends. When her new friend Rose finds out she was a former softball champ, she persuades Charlotte to start a ladies
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When Charlotte’s domineering husband drops dead with a heart attack, Charlotte doesn’t know which way to turn. When she reads an advertisement, Charlotte buys a doublewide trailer, sight unseen, and moves to Paradise Trailer Park. Her rosy view of a trailer park crashes to the ground when she pulls up to her purchase that is far less than advertised. Another resident, Rose Tattoo, conveniences her to stay, and together they pull the residents together and form a softball team. There she finds he
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First the book is a fun book. But it is also a serious book about domestic abuse and the damage done to a soul when it is physically and emotionally abused.
There is humor, from the names of characters to the situations involved. A softball team is created with some very unusual talented players. And though the team and the game of softball are important to the plot, this is not a sports story. It is a story of overcoming difficult times and dealing with situations and people that are harmful to ...more
There is humor, from the names of characters to the situations involved. A softball team is created with some very unusual talented players. And though the team and the game of softball are important to the plot, this is not a sports story. It is a story of overcoming difficult times and dealing with situations and people that are harmful to ...more

Charlotte recently widowed, decided she needed a change in her life. After her husband suddenly passes away. She sells the house and most of her belongings and makes a big move to a trailer house in Paradise, a trailer park.
The story takes the reader on a journey of meeting new people, opening up and not trying to hid in your past hurts.
She organizes a women's softball team and gets the whole community in the trailer park involved. All this much to her mother's negative thinking. ...more
The story takes the reader on a journey of meeting new people, opening up and not trying to hid in your past hurts.
She organizes a women's softball team and gets the whole community in the trailer park involved. All this much to her mother's negative thinking. ...more

This book starts out fast and holds your attention until the last page, Joyce Magnin is a new to me author, with a writing style that reminds me of Fannie Flagg, its a story of a lady really becoming the person she was meant to be, all it took was the death of her husband, and a move to a trailer park!
Charlotte Figg's husband Herman was the top Fuller brush salesman in his area, basically a unhappy man, Charlotte seemed oppressed by him, but a few pages in he drops dead in the kitchen floor, a ...more
Charlotte Figg's husband Herman was the top Fuller brush salesman in his area, basically a unhappy man, Charlotte seemed oppressed by him, but a few pages in he drops dead in the kitchen floor, a ...more

This story was a roller coaster of emotion. Humor, loss, kindness, anger & love all wrapped up in an inspiring and uplifting little package.
Charlotte Figg was at a crossroads after her husband suddenly died. She decided to make a change and move, start a new life in a new place, with new people. As Charlotte's story unfolds she is hit with one stumbling block after another and must learn to stand tall and work though the problems she faces on her own. Even though she doesn't realize it at first, ...more
Charlotte Figg was at a crossroads after her husband suddenly died. She decided to make a change and move, start a new life in a new place, with new people. As Charlotte's story unfolds she is hit with one stumbling block after another and must learn to stand tall and work though the problems she faces on her own. Even though she doesn't realize it at first, ...more

Newly widowed Charlotte Figg purchases a double-wide trailer sight unseen and moves to the Paradise Trailer Park with her dog, Lucky. Unfortunately, neither the trailer nor Paradise are what Charlotte expected. Her trailer is a ramshackle old place in need of major repair, and the people of Paradise are harboring more secrets than Bayer has aspirin. Charlotte’s new friend Rose Tattoo learns that Charlotte played softball and convinces her to rally the women of Paradise into a team. Reluctant at
...more

Sep 22, 2012
Rayni
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Rayni by:
Pixel of Ink
I like Joyce Magnin's style of writing, reminds me of Fannie Flagg. One of the best lines of the whole book is when Charlotte & 3 of her friends go out to dinner.
Now, I would never say this to anyone ... I felt a little like the nurse taking the patients out of the asylum ...One of the drawbacks of Kindle is I can't pick it up & riffle through the pages to find that line. But I did it anyway & found it 82% of the way through the book. I kept trying to find a stopping place, but I had read past ...more

Sometimes I need these lighter books to space out the others - and I did learn to care about these folks in the paradise trailer park -- I liked the book -- it wasn't grand or fabulous, but a good solid light-type read.
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First, I will say that I enjoy books with strong female protagonists and this book most definitely had that in Charlotte. However, there were too many quite unlikely coincidences for me to give this book any higher than a 3 star rating. That said, it was quite readable and I did find myself cheering on Charlotte and the other characters who populated the book. In short, as the book opens, Charlotte's husband, Fuller Brush salesman Herman Figg has suddenly died. He had been a domineering man who
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This is a fun little read. I had some issues with it, but I'll get to those in a moment. Charlotte Figg's husband Herman dies and she buys a trailer in Paradise, from an ad in a magazine. She was married for 26 years and Herman made all of the decisions and well, she was in need of some practice - she was the victim of a bait and switch. The trailer is a disaster, but she and her dog Lucky move stay after meeting some of the people of Paradise.
It seems the trailer park is in a rut or scared and ...more
It seems the trailer park is in a rut or scared and ...more

This book is fast-paced and full of quirky characters. So much of the plot is totally implausible, but I loved it. I am looking forward to reading more from the Bright's Pond series. In this offering, Charlotte unexpectedly finds herself a widow at the age of 58. She does her duty to see that he has a proper funeral and burial; but honestly, she is ready to move on. Charlotte sells her home, buys a cute little double wide mobile home off the internet, packs up her belongings and moves to Paradis
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Once again Abingdon Press tries to sneak a little Jesus into the Frito Pie. This is yet another freebie for the Amazon Kindle that mentions nothing about faith, Christianity or religion. Then again, it also doesn't mention the man-hate. Cutesy and cloying, with too many eccentric-for-eccentricity's sake characters, this book is set in a trailer park in the 1970s, where all but one and a half of the male characters over 11 years of age are either violent charlatans or hickish rubes. In a few case
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Who knew that a book about forming a trailer park softball team could be so engrossing!! "Charlotte figg takes over paradise" is a legitmately fun and heart warming book. The characters, though quirky, are well fleshed out and it's very easy to become attached to them and I often found myself empathizing with them in their sorrows, rooting for them in their struggles, and being genuinely pleased when things worked out in their strange ways. For this is definitely a book which shows that while th
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Definitely picked this one based on the cover/picture (colorful, quirky), the name (again, colorful, quirky) and the fact that it was FREE to download on Kindle (thanks to inkmesh.com and my good friend, Anna, who introduced me to the site). OK, so it's free, and I'm about 31% through the book (I'm starting to think about everything in percentages now... thanks, Kindle!). Having said that, it's not bad so far. Time will tell. I think I know where the story is going... but it's a enjoyable ride.
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A friend like Charlotte would be fantastic, I wish I knew someone like her! Watching her become stronger, standing up for herself and for her friends, was inspiring. There were touches of religion, but I never felt I was being preached at. If you need a lot of action this is probably not the book for you, but I enjoyed this book very much. Very nice book, I would recommend it.

I appreciated how the author was able to create a nice story without the ever-present romance in so many reads; but for me this book focused on women's abuse and disabilities way too much that left me longing for something fun to read. It lacked the humor I had read about in so many reviews. Rose makes a statement in the book that the women in the trailer park don't see each other much but we take care of our own we just don't have barbecues and such. I couldn't help but feel the story would hav
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A very entertaining book. Laughed through it quite a bit!!!! Welcome to the Paradise trailer park. After the death of her husband Charlotte Figg moves with her dog lucky. She discovers the trailer that she purchased is not what she expected nor is the neighbors. With encouragement from her new friend Rose she rallies the women from paradise into a soft ball team. She uncovers secrets alot of what she would like to keep hidden. Charlotte was never good at keeping secrets!!!!

This is a funny, light-hearted book. Her visuals as you read this book puts you right there with them. I was given this book and it sat there for almost 5 years. I Don't know why I passed it up every time for another book. I have loaned it out and when my friends read it they ask me can they let someone else borrow it. Everyone just loves it. I am now looking to buy more by this author. I'm glad the last person that borrowed it looked and told me it was a series.
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I liked the book and it had interesting characters, but sometimes it just goes off track for me. The good thing is the author does know how to write and weave a good tale. Perhaps I'll think differently after reading the rest of the series?
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Um, I like cross stitch, baseball, my children and grandkids, but not elevators or laundry. I've been known to run from mayonnaise and I play RPG video games. I don't have a favorite author although I read a lot.
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Bright's Pond
(4 books)
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