THE GUMBEAUX SISTAHS
by Jax Frey
Genre: Fiction Humor/Women’s Lit
Book Blurb
Five Southern women wage a hilarious war against the ageism problems of one of their deep-in-trouble sisters using their improbable friendships, evil-genius schemes, oh-so-numerous cocktails, and a shared passion for good gumbo.
When southern artist, Judith Lafferty, loses her long-time, prestigious museum job to a much younger man, she finds herself devastated, alone in her sixties, and on the brink of financial disaster. Enter the incomparable Gumbeaux Sistahs, who deliver day-old coffee to her front door as a ploy, then go on to kidnap her, feed her excellent gumbo, and come up with outrageous solutions to her problems. Their motives are just good excuses to drink wine, have a great time, argue over whose mother makes the best gumbo, and, most of all, help a sister out. Ageism, dangerous boyfriends, deep loneliness, and any other challenges that can face the over fifty crowd don’t stand a chance against these five resourceful ladies. The Gumbeaux Sistahs is a heart-warming, smart story of friendship and unexpected shenanigans that you do not want to miss.
Read an Excerpt
At 3 p.m., she found herself in the living room, feet-up on the coffee table, sweaty, dirty and exhausted. Then the doorbell rang. In her mind she could hear her kids saying to her, “Don’t kill whoever it is, Mom, it’s probably just the mail lady delivering the mail as she does every day. You need the mail, Mom. Please don’t hurt the nice lady.”
She chuckled in spite of herself, and went to greet the mail lady, who had seen Judith looking this bad a time or two before from doing chores around the house. So Judith was not worried about her appearance when she swung open the front door. Before she could get it completely open, a hand carrying a coffee cup appeared around the corner, and came dangerously close to poking her in the eye.
“Hello, dear,” came a cheerful voice from the other side of the door. “You forgot your coffee yesterday, so we decided to bring it to you.”
Judith peered around the coffee cup and the door, and was completely shocked to find the four women from the coffee house yesterday, standing on her front steps. Stunned, she sputtered, “What the . . . ?”
“Special delivery!” yelled Lola, with a huge grin on her freckled face.
“You followed me home?” said a stunned Judith, in shock and embarrassment over her appearance. She did not want to be rude, but this was above and beyond weird. She thought, “Have they been stalking me? That’s so creepy!” She deeply regretted opening the door.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Dawn sarcastically, checking her phone as she talked. “Nobody has time for stalking anymore. Now we just follow people around. That’s different, right?”
“What?” thought Judith. She found herself wondering who the heck these women really were. They looked harmless enough, but she was suddenly filled with doubt, and a little bit of fear.
Helen gave Dawn an exasperated look and explained, “Don’t mind her, Judith. She’s teasing. We didn’t follow you. We know where you live. Lola lives right across the street, remember?”
Lola added with a smirk, “Don’t tell me you forgot that already.”
“No, I didn’t — sorry.” Judith took hold of the cup, and was surprised to find that it was cold and kind of used-looking. A thought occurred to her and she asked, astonished, “Wait — is this actually the same coffee from yesterday?”
“Yes, dear,” said Bea, smiling brightly, “We took good care of it for you.”
Author Jax Frey will award a randomly drawn winner a $25 Amazon/BN GC and will award a second randomly drawn winner a print copy of the book (US only). Click to enter the Rafflecopter contest!
Meet Jax Frey
Born in New Orleans, Jax Frey came into this world, whooping and hollering, with a sense of love 
and celebration of Louisiana culture, food, family and fun. Translating that celebration into her writing and onto canvas is her true calling. Her colorful art depicts everything-Louisiana from her dancing Gumbeaux Sistahs paintings to her popular line of original Mini paintings. Because over 25,000 of the mini paintings have been created and sold into art collections worldwide, Jax holds a world’s record for The Most Original Acrylic Paintings on Canvas by One Artist.
Jax is also the co-founder of the Women of Infinite Possibilities, an empowering women’s organization started in Covington, LA, where Jax lives today with her loveable, tornado-of-a-pug named Lucy. The Gumbeaux Sistahs is her debut novel.
Email: jaxfreyart@gmail.com
For more information please visit – www.gumbeauxsistahs.com
FB and Instagram – Gumbeaux Sistahs
https://www.facebook.com/jax.frey.3
Jax’s art can be seen at: www.artbyjax.com
resser, and I sing along at the top of my lungs as I buzz between my bedroom and the adjoining bathroom. Saturday’s long-standing girls’ night out tradition dates back to when my three best friends and I moved to Asheville, North Carolina, after our college graduation. This week’s get-together couldn’t come soon enough. Three spring redecorating jobs have kept me swamped for the past month and a half, and today I worked later than usual to wrap up a few odds and ends for my clients.
J. Lynn Rowan 