23 observant writers
Attach the word sin to any other region of the country–Pacific Northwest, Midwest, even the Mid-Atlantic–and it not only sounds wrong, it comes off as downright silly. But the South? Ah, now there's a match made in heaven. What's even more divine is that the sinners are all women: good ol' gals and Victorian renegades, sullen students and sultry soccer moms who suffer from an excess of emotion, a surfeit of sensuality. Gutkind and Fennelly collect the works of 23 observant writers who catch obliging women in the act of doing outrageous things that run the gamut from slightly inappropriate to almost evil and somehow leave them feeling just right. When they trade their comfort zone for a danger zone, it's not that they're looking for love in all the wrong places; sometimes some good old sex will do. In each of these true stories, the search for identity and acceptance, attention and excitement manifests itself in myriad ways, but always with the heart of Dixie at its core.