The hand I fan with
In The Hand I Fan With, Ansa returns to the fictional small town of Mulberry, Georgia, where her previous two bestselling novels, Baby of the Family and Ugly Ways, were set. Filled with eccentric and terminally nosy folks, Mulberry is a vibrant community whose leading citizen is the extraordinary Lena McPherson. With the death of Lena's parents in a plane crash ten years earlier, she has become the one on whom everyone in Mulberry depends - she's the hand they fan with. Now forty-five, Lena's beginning to weary of shouldering everyone's problems. And her material wealth gives her no emotional sustenance. Desperate for love and companionship, she and a friend perform a supernatural ritual to conjure up a man for Lena. She gets one all right: a ghost named Herman who, though dead for one hundred years, is all man. His love changes Lena's life forever, satisfying as never before her physical and spiritual needs.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Romance. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Fiction · Romance
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest violence, death, or criminal harm. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Balanced tone · Measured pace
Best when you want to settle into a longer reading experience.
A good fit if…
Readers looking for a substantial, immersive commitment with room for a world or argument to unfold.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3406-3274-1
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL31920272M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
Best when you want to settle into a longer reading experience.
Begin with its place in Fiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- What does the central character want, and what do they misunderstand about that desire?
- Which detail or relationship changes how you interpret the story?
- What feeling or question does the book leave with you after the plot moves on?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
More Fiction books
These matches combine shared categories with author, publication-era, and reading-length signals.
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Why it fits: shares Romance and Fiction, a similar publication era.
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by Amy Knupp
Why it fits: shares Romance and Fiction, a similar publication era.
Prudence (Historical Romance)
by Elizabeth Bailey
Why it fits: shares Romance and Fiction, a similar publication era.
Their Secret Baby
by Kate Walker
Why it fits: shares Romance and Fiction, a similar publication era.
Heart Of A Thief (Silhouette Romantic Suspense)
by Gail Barrett
Why it fits: shares Romance and Fiction.