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 … 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?more
Molly Harper is a new to me author and after reading this one, I’m wondering how I’ve missed her. Sweet Tea and Sympathy is packed full of the charm and wit that is so often associated with small-town Southern life. Margot’s journey from working with the Chicago elite to a job in the family business is a completely engaging tale that I found impossible to out down. With quirky characters, a rumor mill that spreads news faster than any media source, and small town politics, I found myself laughing out loud, oohing and ahhing, and genuinely rooting for this sweet Southern family – sometimes all at the same time. This is an absolutely charming tale of life, love, family, and finding happiness and contentment in the most unlikely of places. This author has quickly become one to watch for this reader and Sweet Tea and Sympathy is a book that I highly recommend.
On a personal note, living in a small, Southern town (not quite as far South as Lake Sackett) and connecting with my own father late in life, I found so many things in Margot’s journey that touched me in more ways than just an entertaining story. And I have to agree with Aunt Tootie – if you add sugar to cornbread, it’s cake! (Just sayin’)
Molly Harper’s Sweet Tea and Sympathy fits right in with the small town charm of Georgia that it is mirrored after. Margot was a high profile event planner until a fateful event made her unappealing to even the lowest of PR firms. Enter her country bumpkin family that she didn’t even knew existed. Her estranged father’s aunt found out about Margot’s mishap by internet and offered her a job when she was at her lowest point. A saving grace or her worst mistake? Margot goes from Gucci to Wrangler in the blink of an eye. She isn’t quite sure about the family business a funeral parlor attached to a bait shop, what? Well, when you are in backwoods country anything is possible.
Margot’s small town family means well, they want her to patch up with her estranged father, and have their claws set on setting her up with her perfect match. Margot isn’t so sure about everything until her moment of clarity hits her. She realizes that she belongs sooner rather than later when she thinks the perfect job has landed in her lap.
Margot gets her HEA and the job she was meant for all along. This book will having you laughing, crying and pondering what crazy family thing will happen next. A quick and easy read that is sure to delight I give it a solid four stars.