Review: Sweet Tea and Sympathy by Molly Harper

Posted December 27, 2018 by Holly in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: Sweet Tea and Sympathy by Molly HarperReviewer: Holly
Sweet Tea and Sympathy (Southern Eclectic, #1) by Molly Harper
Narrator: Amanda Ronconi
Series: Southern Eclectic #1
Also in this series: Gimme Some Sugar (Southern Eclectic, #3)
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: November 21, 2017
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction
Pages: 307
Length: 9 hours and 27 minutes
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Beloved author Molly Harper launches a brand-new contemporary romance series, Southern Eclectic, with this story of a big-city party planner who finds true love in a small Georgia town.

Nestled on the shore of Lake Sackett, Georgia is the McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop. (What, you have a problem with one-stop shopping?) Two McCready brothers started two separate businesses in the same building back in 1928, and now it’s become one big family affair. And true to form in small Southern towns, family business becomes everybody’s business.

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?

Margo Cary is at the top of her game as the premier party planner to the elite of Chicago. She’s about to make partner and buy her first condo. She’s sacrificed a lot for this job, and to be where she’s at professionally, so to see it all go up in smoke in a single day? She can’t even process. When an aunt from her father’s side she didn’t even know existed calls and offers her a job with the family business in Georgia, she doesn’t want to say yes. But her empty bank account and almost-homeless situation forces her to take it, at least temporarily. The McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop (known as the Bait and Bury to the locals), has been in the family for generations. Margo never thought she’d end up in some backwater Georgia town, but there’s a certain charm to her redneck family. Things look up when she meets the local principal, Kyle. But Margo knows she isn’t meant to stay in Georgia, and Kyle isn’t planning to leave.

This started a bit slow for me, but I really fell into it around the 1/4 mark. It was such a silly, fun contemporary I couldn’t help but love it. Margot and her wacky family really got to me. The romance is very light. I was glad this was more of a HFN ending than an HEA, because I didn’t feel like we got enough between the two. The town and Margot’s family are the true draw here. There were some hilarious moments while Margo was getting to know her cousins Duffy, Frankie and Marianne. Their antics together had me cracking up and reminded me somewhat of my own cousins. All the aunts and uncles were fun, and I liked seeing Margo navigate a relationship with her father.

Though it started slow, I can’t deny I quickly fell into the story. Like Margo, I really came to love all the wacky inhabitants of Lake Sackett.

3.75 out of 5

Southern Eclectic

four-stars


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