The book starts with a bang, when Keely discovers that her fiance AJ is sleeping with her best friend at their rehearsal dinner. As typical as that seems, the rest of the book becomes a little more original as time goes on. Keely throws her "hissy fit" and escapes, into the car of a man she doesn't know driving a yellow convertible. Welcome to the world of Mary Kay Andrews, where manners are polished, reputations are tarnished ... and revenge issweet. Keeley Murdock's wedding to A. J. Jernigan should have been the social event of the season. But when she catches her fiance doing the deed with her maid of honor at the country club rehearsal dinner, all bets are off. And so is the wedding. Keeley pitches the hissy fit of the century, earning herself instant notoriety in the small town of Madison, Georgia. Even worse is the financial pressure A.J.'s banking family brings to bear on Keeley's interior design business. But riding to the rescue -- in a vintage yellow Cadillac -- is the redheaded stranger who's purchased a failing local bra plant. Will Mahoney hires Keeley to redo the derelict antebellum mansion he's bought. Her assignment: decorate it for the woman of his dreams -- a woman he's never met. Only a designing woman like Keeley Murdock can find a way to clear her name and give her cheating varmint of an ex-fiance the comeuppance he so richly deserves. And only Mary Kay Andrews can deliver such delicious social satire. With Hissy Fit, she's created a story as outrageous, dishy, and true as Savannah Blues and Little Bitty Lies.
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The man in the car, Will, ends up being her newest client, as times get hard when AJ's family gets her "blacklisted" in the small Georgian town. She gets hired on as Will's interior decorator at Mulberry Hill, his new home which is more like a mansion. He has become smitten with a woman with whom he has only spoken to over the phone, and seen on TV. He wants Keeley to make it the kind of house "Stephanie" would want, because he believes that he will eventually marry her. Keeley spends her days and nights scouring flea markets and antique shops, avoiding AJ and his family like the plague, and dealing with some old issues. Her mother has been gone for 25 years, but there are some rumors around town that Keeley's mother was involved with another man. I could go on, but there is too much. That's one of the problems. It was over 400 pages, and a lot of it was in "designer-speak." It probably would have been more interesting if I shared the occupation of the main character. Also, the book felt as if it went slow at times, just to speed up to the inevitable, predictable end. Which, by the way, was the quickest part of the story. It was almost as if the author ran out of things to say. I did like the humor of the story and I liked the sub-plot/mystery about what happened to Keeley's mother. The story was good enough to hold me through the 400+ pages. I was just hoping for a little more.
