The Belle of the Bell City Bottom

As you know, I’ve been posting a series of synopses of my upcoming publications from time to time. This one is called The Belle of the Bell City Bottom (working title). I’d love to hear your reaction to the synopsis as well as the title. I’m a bit worried that it might conjure up a totally different book from the actual one.
Synopsis: The Belle of the Bell City Bottom
Effie Shultz, born 1900 in western Kentucky, is far from a true southern belle. Rather, she is the youngest daughter in an impoverished family with too many children, claiming descent from Catherine the Great, eking out a living as sharecroppers. After her mother’s death, Effie—the only unmarried daughter—is expected to tend to her ill-tempered father and demanding brothers. She learns to enjoy controlling the boys and, to a lesser extent, her father. When she meets and falls in love with Dalton McClain, she’s torn between the drive to control him, as she did them, and a desire to be controlled.

Her inner conflict leads to behavior baffling to them both. Like It All Comes Down to This, The Belle of the Bell City Bottom focuses on strong-minded sisters, a dying mother, and the importance of family bonds and the past. It also shares nuanced character development with Properties of Thirst.

Afraid Dalton will think her too old to be marriage material, she lies about her age, a lie that haunts her until her death. Although Dalton comes from a line of rough, gun-toting drinkers, he seems gentle and kind. Having been abandoned by his father not long after his mother died, Dalton feels responsible for his younger alcoholic brother, Raymond. Time after time, Dalton rescues Raymond from bar fights and near-death encounters.

This devotion to family both endears him to Effie and arouses her jealousy. She fears she will never be able to take first place in his life when Raymond is so consistently needy. She flees from the Bell City bottom for a time to spread her wings as a career woman in Paris, Tennessee, where one of her favorite sisters is currently boarding. When Dalton shows up in Paris at Christmastime, Effie’s heart leaps with joy. The book follows their relationship over the years through and beyond the Depression. When their beautiful daughter, Marie, shows signs of manic-depressive behavior, Effie and Dalton unite in their desire for her happiness but not in the means to achieve that end.