Title: Sweet Tea and Sympathy
Author: Molly Harper
Series: A Southern Eclectic Novel #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: November 21, 2017
Pages: 320
Book Source: ARC
“Margot Cary has spent her life immersed in everything Lake Sackett is not. As an elite event planner, Margot’s rubbed elbows with the cream of Chicago society, and made elegance and glamour her business. She’s riding high until one event goes tragically, spectacularly wrong. Now she’s blackballed by the gala set and in dire need of a fresh start–and apparently the McCreadys are in need of an event planner with a tarnished reputation.
As Margot finds her footing in a town where everybody knows not only your name, but what you had for dinner last Saturday night and what you’ll wear to church on Sunday morning, she grudgingly has to admit that there are some things Lake Sackett does better than Chicago–including the dating prospects. Elementary school principal Kyle Archer is a fellow fish-out-of-water who volunteers to show Margot the picture-postcard side of Southern living. The two of them hit it off, but not everybody is happy to see an outsider snapping up one of the town’s most eligible gentleman. Will Margot reel in her handsome fish, or will she have to release her latest catch?” Amazon
My Review:
If you’ve been following the reviews on my blog (http://kheniadis.wpengine.com), you’ve probably noticed I’m enamoured with books written in the Southern United States. And as I look out the window on this cold Wisconsin day, and see snow violently hurling itself down to the ground, I really wish I was in Georgia right now!
Years ago I remember reading some of the books in Molly Harper’s, Nice Girls series, and enjoying them, so when I came upon this ARC, I decided to give it a read. The Nice Girls series started in 2009, so that is why I don’t have reviews on my website for them. But I do know I liked the series, so if you like Paranormal Romance, you should definitely give it a try.
Harper does a fantastic job developing the main characters in this series. There are so many characters, that unless this book was an additional 200 pages, she would not have been able to do them all justice.
After finishing this book, I checked to see what the next full length novel in the series is about. It’s titled, Ain’t She a Peach, and focuses on Margot’s cousin, the mortician. So I was super excited to see that each book and novella in this series would focus on a different character. I know Harper will continue to shine with her character descriptions.
The humor interwoven in the story had me chuckling throughout. And I really appreciated that the author didn’t have Margot dwell on having to come to some ho-dunk town throughout the whole book. When Harper did write about it, it was mainly for the humorous effect.
Besides the wacky characters, and situations, there is also some deeper storylines, that got me in the feels. Especially the one involving Margot and her father. Margot really grew because of this, and I couldn’t help but feel that this was how a real daughter might react to the situation with her father. And of course there is the budding romance with Margot and the school principal, but Harper kept it on the lighter side because of all the family drama that was going on.
If you enjoy light romances that have family dramas and funny scenes throughout them, this is one you will want to read.
You may also want to check out the novella about Margot’s cousin, Marianne, that takes place about five years before this book. It’s called, Save a Truck, Ride a Redneck.
I already have, Ain’t She a Peach, on hold at my local library, and am looking forward to continuing this series, with Margot’s other cousin, Frankie, the mortician!