The scoop

Fabulously wealthy, flamboyant, 56-year-old Teresa Toots Amelia Loudenberry has just finished joyfully burying husband number eight when she decides it's time for a major change. She calls her three longtime friends, Mavis, Sophie, and Ida, planning to make a better life for all of them. Mavis, a compulsive eater, has turned into a frumpy, overweight version of her former self. Too-thin Sophie has an abusive husband (happily, at death's door). Ida is literally paralyzed with an extreme case of OCD. In addition to their makeovers, what better way for the four of them to add excitement to their lives than to move to L.A. and secretly buy the Hollywood tabloid where Toots' daughter works? Michaels' engaging version of the Golden Girls is the first book in her new Godmothers series.--Mosley, Shelley Copyright 2009 Booklist

Michaels (Mr. & Miss Anonymous) launches the Godmother series, pure recession-proof fun starring a multimillionaire diva and her three best friends. Teresa Amelia "Toots" Loudenberry, 65, has just buried her eighth husband in Charleston, S.C. Fabulously wealthy, Toots zips through a one-week mourning period and persuades her best friends-obsessive-compulsive Ida, overweight Mavis (plus Coco, her Chihuahua) and too-thin smoker Sophie-to come visit and accompany her to Hollywood. Toots is going to secretly buy the Informer, the ailing tabloid that she shamelessly adores and where her reporter daughter Abby Simpson works. But the $10,000,000 transaction hits a snag when Rodwell Archibald Godfrey III, the greedy publisher, absconds with the money to the Cayman Islands. Veteran Michaels, a Golden Girl-style humorist spins some serious make believe magic as she sets up the next installment. Will Mavis and Sophie reach their goal weights? Will Ida overcome OCD? Will Toots save publishing? Anything can happen in La La land. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved