Answering the door one day brings this prim and proper Southern lady face to face with one last legacy—a nine-year-boy, bearing the dead man’s name, Wesley Lloyd Springer.

Flaunting her son’s birth certificate before kissing him good-bye, Hazel Marie Puckett,  hastily departs to ‘learn nails’ since her penny-pinching lover of 10 years failed to provide for them and she can’t support ‘Junior’ without some training.

How will Miss Julia break free of the restrictions imposed on her during 44 years of marriage, learn to make decisions for herself and proudly hold her head high with rumors of Mr. Springer’s indiscretions flying around Abbotsville?

Bolstered by the estate’s executor, Sam Murdoch; female attorney, Binkie Enloe, and long-time housekeeper and confidante, Lillian, Miss Julia marches Little Lloyd down town to the barbershop for a “haircut just like your daddy’s”.

But with big money (more than a million) comes even bigger complications in the form of:

1. Pastor Larry Ledbetter who needs Springer money to add a family activity center to the Presbyterian Church just across the street.
2. Televangelist Brother Vernon Puckett who plans to snatch some of the boy’s inheritance by declaring Hazel Marie an unfit mother and becoming the legal guardian.
3. Dr. Fred Fowler who leads Miss Julia into a compromising position in the bridal parlor with the hopes of proving her a nymphomaniac.

Not to mention:

• Whose blood and broken teeth did Deputy Bates find in the garage attached to the country love nest ?
• What was written on the piece of pink paper that Miss Julia pinned inside her bodice for safekeeping?
• Why is a jacked-up  monster truck with tinted windows following Miss Julia around the countryside?

For the answers to all of those questions and a rollicking good read, pick up Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, the first in a series of ten by Ann B. Ross.

Other titles include:  Miss Julia Takes Over (2001), Miss Julia Throws a Wedding (2002), Miss Julia Hits the Road (2003), Miss Julia Meets Her Match (2004), Miss Julia’s School of Beauty (2005), Miss Julia Stands Her Ground (2006), Miss Julia Strikes Back (2007), Miss Julia Paints the Town (2008) and Miss Julia Delivers the Goods (2009).

While it is not absolutely necessary to read the novels in chronological order, book one introduces the primary characters and lays the foundation for all of Miss Julia’s adventures that follow in subsequent volumes.  Enjoy!!