Holly Swimsuit: Book 1
Publication Date: November 15, 2023
Holly Schlivnik dreams of being a writer, but fate has other plans. A family crisis throws her into an improbable situation and her life will never be the same. Determined to make her own luck when things don’t happen the way she plans, the irrepressible young woman takes a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling and shatters it to smithereens. The wise-cracking, irreverent transplanted Californian goes on a raucous, rollicking rollercoaster ride of hysterical adventures as a ladies’ apparel sales rep traveling in the deep South and finds herself along the way.
Rag Lady by author Susie Black follows Holly, a recent college graduate who isn’t sure what to do with her life following a disastrous interview for her dream journalism job. She ends up helping her father, a clothing sales representative, and flourishing in this new career path.
The story follows Holly over her first couple years as a sales rep as she travels all around the South, meeting a wide variety of people, learning the ropes, and just dealing with life.
I went into reading Rag Lady knowing it was a prequel to a cozy mystery series. However, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this story. There’s no mystery or real romance, and I spent at least the first third of the book at a loss as to where the story was heading. In the end, the book sets the stage by explaining the background of apparel sales and introducing Holly and her family and friends.
I like Holly. She’s funny, outspoken, and yet relatable. I loved her relationship with her Nana, who gave her the best advice. Holly is open-minded and makes the widest variety of friends. She’s also Jewish, so it was interesting to learn more about the holidays and traditions of the faith.
The author leaned hard into touching upon racism in the South, both for African Americans and Jews. While it’s an important topic, the couple of chapters where it was brought up were a little jarring and might be a touchy subject for some. There was a discussion about Nazi concentration camps that had me in tears, but I also didn’t know that it necessarily needed to be included. These sorts of scenes just seemed out of place in what is otherwise a pretty lighthearted read.
Once I got going in the story, it was an interesting read. It is evident that the author has experience in the apparel sales world, as shown by the extensive descriptions. The story could have been edited down and more effective for me. As an introduction to a series, it suffers from information overload, but it also intrigued me enough to continue with the series.
Rag Lady made me curious to follow Holly as she embarks on sleuthing and watching her grow in this career.
Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple, but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.
She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
