With a ringing phone, Jeanne Rays charming and amusing new novel gets off to a rollicking start that never lets up. Not for a minute. On the other end of the phone is Carolines daughter, Kay, a public defender like her father, sobbing at the improbably good news that the richest, most eligible boy in Raleigh, North Carolina, has asked her to marry him. While Caroline and Tom are trying to digest this, the other phone, the childrens line, rings; it is Carolines sister, Taffy, hysterical over her husbands decision to leave her for a woman two years younger than her daughter. Soon Taffy is wending her way up from Atlanta to seek solace in her sisters home, even though the two have been separated by more than just geography for the past forty years. With her is her little dog, Stamp, who has a penchant for biting ankles and stealing hearts. Tom and Caroline quickly realize that the wedding their future son-in-laws family is envisioning for nine-hundred-plus guests is to be their fiscal responsibility. To top it all off, the foundation of their home is in danger of collapsing and their contractor and his crew have all but moved in. Its a thundering whirlwind of emotion that finally boils down to: Who is in love with whom? and Whos going to get the next dance? Wise, funny, and impossible to put down, Step-Ball-Change is peopled with characters you feel you have known your whole life. Its the kind of book that you cant bear to see end.