Hungry for Happiness

A former fatty adjusts to life in the svelte lane in Villas's agreeable latest. Loretta Crawford has dropped nearly 100 pounds since having her stomach banded, a decision hastened by her husband's ditching her for a skinny skank. Now, the part-time sax player and animal shelter worker is on track to become one of Houston's hottest caterers. Villas (Dancing in the Lowcountry) follows Loretta's exuberant transformation with a brassy first-person narration crackling with a Texas blue-collar twang that generally entertains and sometimes annoys. Loretta's boisterous adventures with men, meanwhile, are a hoot--notably with chubby chaser Vernon Parrish, who becomes annoyed at her weight loss and marries her seriously rotund BFF. Villas, an accomplished chef, tacks on authentic Texas recipes as Loretta becomes a larger-than-life wild woman worthy of an encore.