<P>Reeling from the loss of her mother, and plagued with a bad case of writer's block, Renata DeChavannes feels her world spinning out of control. And that's before the tabloids caught her sweetheart, Ferg Lauderdale, with Hollywood's latest starlet.</P><P>The granddaughter of the formidable Honora DeChavannes possesses more hell than belle in her backbone -- and she's about to show it! Heading south to Honora's home on the Gulf Coast, Renata is determined to stop feeling like a wilted gardenia and emerge as the unstoppable kudzu her grandmother proclaimed her to be. But first Renata must face some not-so-genteel ghosts from her past, discover the truth about the mother she desperately misses, and make peace with the first man who abandoned her and broke her heart -- her handsome and distant father.</P>