Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League by Johnathan Odell

   There was just something about this cover and this title that just jumped out at me.  I just had to read it.  I was looking for something akin to The Help, and this sounded like it would fit the bill.

This is the story of Hazel, a white woman in the 1950's pre-Civil Rights Mississippi.  ( God help her)   She marries an up and coming white man named Floyd.  Things should be coming up roses for Hazel, but she just doesn't quite fit in.  After suffering a terrible personal loss, she turns to alcohol and pills for succor. Desperate, Floyd hires a colored maid, Vida, to look after Hazel and they form an unlikely friendship.

I was hoping for The Help, but I didn't find it here.  While the characters were well written, the story was slower than southern molasses with moments of brilliance written in.  (I loved the scene where the society women come to Hazel's for tea)   There just simply wasn't enough of that to save the book, in my opinion.  It just took too long to develop and then, ended up sounded like a less intelligent version of Twain's Pudd'n Head Wilson.  I gave it three out of five stars and am happy to be moving on.