Reviewed by
   N L Banks

Reviewer Rating: * * * *
Title: Cousin Feely
Category:  Mainstream Fiction
Author: J.B. Jones
Publisher: Double Dragon E-Books
Release Date: Available Now
 

This entertaining story of growing up in a small town is about love, hate, and all the emotions in-between.

Bob Junior recounts his life about growing up on a farm and playing bodyguard to his cousin, William Feely, who hates football.

Every chance “Cousin Feely” gets, he runs down football, and the town of Grunion Glade takes its football very seriously. Because of William, Bob has been beaten up by just about all the football players, but he still defends his cousin’s right not to like football.

From the beginning to the end, J. B. Jones tells a tale well worth reading; her characters come alive as you are drawn into the story. Bob’s father had died years earlier, so he learned football plays from two school friends. 

“Butch and Hereford fell into the habit of tramping through the trees to my farm most afternoons to run football plays in the bull pasture where we found an inspiring coach in Mother's aging bull, Redhot.  You'd be amazed how fast you can carry a ball across the goal line, or in this case, over the pasture fence when you have two thousand pounds of angry bull on your tail.”

And again, when Bob and his friends were playing football at school, and tossed the football in William’s direction, who in turn caught it, and tossed the ball in the incinerator. The boys chased William around town; Bob hoping that they didn’t catch up to William, because he would have to defend William, but his aunt saved him by hiding him in a baby buggy.

"How was it, riding in that pram?" I asked him. There wasn't another eight-year-old in all of Grunion Glade that could fit into a baby buggy."

"I'll always remember Aunt Mil's hat," William said. "It had a long, red feather, fanciest one I've ever seen. After she stuffed me in the pram, she covered me with a blanket, tied a bonnet over my hair and stuck a pacifier in my mouth. It hurt my lip." In a serious, confidential tone, he said, "I would rather have died in that rhubarb patch, Bob Junior, then to be wheeled home in a baby buggy. It was so… so… " he fished around for the right word and finally came up with, "unmanly." He continued. "I wanted to jump out and run, but I was tucked in too tight. All I could do was lie there, suck on the pacifier and watch that red feather bob up and down on Aunt Mil's hat."

William from his birth two months early, when the doctor didn’t think he was going to live, because he’s as “delicate as a soap bubble on a windy day”  to his death, teaches the town to grow, learn and see things in a different light.

The book was funny, sad, and the descriptions make the story come alive. It is written well and fast paced. I gave it 4 stars and look forward to reading more books by J. B. Jones.

Copyright © 2002 by N L Banks