Leaving the BEllweathers by Kristin Clark Venuti

My cousin Noel passed this one on to me. I must have been drooling over it quite a bit... Thanks Noel! Read her review HERE.

Leaving the Bellweathers hasn't come out yet. It comes out September 22nd, however you can have an ARC copy instead... but I'm getting ahead of myself....

The Bellweathers are an interesting family to say the least, and their butler, Benway, has had just about enough of them. But he cannot quit, no, for an oath of fealty binds him to work for the Bellweathers until the two hundred years are over. And they almost are. Benway would know; he keeps a running total of the number of days, hours, and even minutes until his 'liberation'.

What, you ask, is so detestable about the Bellweathers? Let me explain: The father is an inventor who is very easily angered to say the least. The mother is continuously painting... each room of the lighthouse where they live has been painted and repainted innumerable times. It is nearly impossible to go in the house and not come out with wet paint on one's clothes. The boy's name is Spider. He rarely goes outside, preferring his dark room. Spider is very interested in exotic and or endangered animals and somehow manages to keep an endangered albino alligator in his bathtub. The daughter Ninda is very concerned with doing good and helping the oppressed. It gets to the point where she secretly keeps a circus family in her room to train them about how to stand up for themselves. And then there are the triplets: Brick, Sassy and Spike. If one is anywhere near them, you had better hope they are yelling, for they are only quiet when they are Up To No Good.

So Benway is planning on finding a replacement butler, writing a book about his experiences, and moving Far, Far, Away. But what happens when the children begin to catch on?

Overall I enjoyed the book. Yes, it was a bit unrealistic and hard to believe, but its fiction- it doesn't have to be realistic.

Now for your chance to win an ARC copy! All you have to do is tell one person about this contest, and where to find it, and then you can leave your email address in the 'comments' section. I will pick a winner Saturday night, so be sure to spread the news and leave your comment before September 20th 8pm Central time! I'll announce the winner Monday.

And for the sake of interesting stories, feel free to tell a story about yourself or someone close to you who got into some mischief... it doesn't have to be an art heist or anything, something as simple as 'my sisters got into the freezer one day when they were three and four and opened a carton of ice-cream and ate a quarter of the way through it before mom found them' (true story)...