Mae and Cleo, a short Black woman and a tall Irish woman, live together in a small Texas town, attend church, squabble with each other and with their neighbors, and take in small children whose parents don’t want them, are too busy, or unable to care for them. 

That’s how Tina, Grace, and Walker came to live with them.  After high school, Tina split and never came back home for ten years.  Not a word from her.  Meanwhile, her best childhood friends, Walker and Grace, hung around and went into business and taught school, respectively.

Then Tina returns, as the novel begins.  She has made “mistakes” the reader is told, and only plans to stop by briefly.  But she stays, her friends and the two old ladies forgive her, and they will all live happily ever after.  But not before we go through a halting, awkward romance between Walker and Tina.  And not before the two old ladies get into a mud fight with the old neighbor lady next door.  And not before the author forces us to take sides against three mean girls in town.  And not before Tina’s parents say they never want to see her again.  And not before the “tomorrow tree” in the park (across from Mae and Cleo’s house) loses a limb.

The dialogue is stilted and artificial in the book.  The characters are mostly caricatures.  The problems are serious, but handled superficially.  The book is weighed down by too much niceness.  But hey—3 stars for niceness.  We could use some of that.