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klippy's review against another edition
5.0
Just read this for a second time. I adore Molly Harper. Living in the South I enjoy fun stories taking place in the South, which this one is. A bit offbeat and a eccentric family. I laughed so much reading this book, especially the second time. This is just the beginning of a series. Love the story about the paint by number Jesus pieces!! What a priceless story and a fabulous family!!!
marieintheraw's review against another edition
4.0
My first contemporary from Molly Harper. It has different beats with the characters than her other books, but still all the charm. My biggest pet peeve with this one involved the main character's overall story arc and the lack of communication involved in her romance. A love the focus on family dynamics in this series.
trudyd's review
5.0
Molly Harper has me falling in love with Southern romances. First it was her Bluegrass series. I laughed so hard that I got a stomach ache reading those stories.
And now the Southern Eclectic series has be busting a gut. The situations these people find themselves in will have you rolling your eyes and rolling on the floor. Only Molly Harper could come up with such an eclectic assortment of relatives living in a "compound" and most of the working in some capacity at McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop.
At the beginning of the book Margot doesn't even her dad's side of the family, the McCready family. An incident at work involving shrimp and crazy flamingos finds her unemployed. With no chance of finding another job as party planner she finds herself heading to Lake Sackett, Georgia where nothing will be the same again.
She isn't looking for love. She isn't even looking for companionship. She is looking for a place to lick her wounds and pick up the pieces of her life. What she finds is a gorgeous widower, Kyle, that just happens to be the elementary school principal and the stranger that she ran amuck with her hair on fire one night outside a bar.
Where life goes from her you will only know when you pick up this amazing romance. Be prepared to laugh, cry and scream. Margot is on the rollercoaster ride of her life and you get to ride along.
6/28/21 Awesome audiobook. It was a great way to hide for the unexpected high heat.
And now the Southern Eclectic series has be busting a gut. The situations these people find themselves in will have you rolling your eyes and rolling on the floor. Only Molly Harper could come up with such an eclectic assortment of relatives living in a "compound" and most of the working in some capacity at McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop.
At the beginning of the book Margot doesn't even her dad's side of the family, the McCready family. An incident at work involving shrimp and crazy flamingos finds her unemployed. With no chance of finding another job as party planner she finds herself heading to Lake Sackett, Georgia where nothing will be the same again.
She isn't looking for love. She isn't even looking for companionship. She is looking for a place to lick her wounds and pick up the pieces of her life. What she finds is a gorgeous widower, Kyle, that just happens to be the elementary school principal and the stranger that she ran amuck with her hair on fire one night outside a bar.
Where life goes from her you will only know when you pick up this amazing romance. Be prepared to laugh, cry and scream. Margot is on the rollercoaster ride of her life and you get to ride along.
6/28/21 Awesome audiobook. It was a great way to hide for the unexpected high heat.
bkclub4one's review against another edition
4.0
I am off to a good start! All the books I have picked to read in January are really good and this one was no exception. I picked this book because of the cover. That cover just caught my eye, it promised a simple and enjoyable sweet read just what I need to start of the new year. The Mc Margot loses her job after an embarrassing disaster occurs at one of her parties( she is a party planner ). Over night she goes from planning huge galas and an expected promotion to becoming the laughing stock of the party planning world.
Everything seems to be falling apart until a woman, Tootie calls her and tells her she is her aunt then offers her a job. Obviously she goes because she has no choice so she leaves Chicago and moves to Georgia. There she meets her large family and a father she hasn't seen in years. Her adjustment to living in the small town was interesting some parts of this book were actually funny and sweet.
This book did not disappoint, it was enjoyable and sweet. The plot was simple, there were no twists, no startling revelations just a simple relaxing read. There was some romance in here too. Margot falls for a widower with two kids who is also annoying especially at the end.
I mean seriously he is not in love with her, he doesn't want a serious relationship but he still wants her to pause her plans and wait for him and love him until he is sure of what he wants?!? I couldn't believe he played the "I introduced you to my daughters" card. Unless I skipped the pages all the encounters Margot had with Hazel and Juniper were purely coincidental and not as a result of Kyle planning for them to spend time together.
The characters were fairly well written. I liked most of Margot's family especially Tootie, Donna and Frankie. The best thing about them was that their relationship was very realistic. Talking of realistic that hookup scene between Kyle and Margot was awkwardly relatable. It was good of Kyle to give that disclaimer😉 more guys should try it. The ending was predictable but it fit in with the simplicity of the entire book.
Everything seems to be falling apart until a woman, Tootie calls her and tells her she is her aunt then offers her a job. Obviously she goes because she has no choice so she leaves Chicago and moves to Georgia. There she meets her large family and a father she hasn't seen in years. Her adjustment to living in the small town was interesting some parts of this book were actually funny and sweet.
This book did not disappoint, it was enjoyable and sweet. The plot was simple, there were no twists, no startling revelations just a simple relaxing read. There was some romance in here too. Margot falls for a widower with two kids who is also annoying especially at the end.
I mean seriously he is not in love with her, he doesn't want a serious relationship but he still wants her to pause her plans and wait for him and love him until he is sure of what he wants?!? I couldn't believe he played the "I introduced you to my daughters" card. Unless I skipped the pages all the encounters Margot had with Hazel and Juniper were purely coincidental and not as a result of Kyle planning for them to spend time together.
The characters were fairly well written. I liked most of Margot's family especially Tootie, Donna and Frankie. The best thing about them was that their relationship was very realistic. Talking of realistic that hookup scene between Kyle and Margot was awkwardly relatable. It was good of Kyle to give that disclaimer😉 more guys should try it. The ending was predictable but it fit in with the simplicity of the entire book.
katrenia's review against another edition
4.0
A fun quick southern feel good story. It had both substance and a happy ending. I would read another by this author. I give it a 3.5.
I listened to the audio version and the narrator was pretty good. The kid voices grated on my nerves, and fortunately they were minor characters.
I listened to the audio version and the narrator was pretty good. The kid voices grated on my nerves, and fortunately they were minor characters.
tamm's review
5.0
Sweet read
This was a funny, sweet, endearing read. Big city meets southern charm... and gets won over.
I didn’t just fall in love with Margo and Kyle, I fell in love with the entire cast of characters.
This was a funny, sweet, endearing read. Big city meets southern charm... and gets won over.
I didn’t just fall in love with Margo and Kyle, I fell in love with the entire cast of characters.
oddsbodikins7's review against another edition
1.0
Just a copy of Hart of Dixie. Bad Hallmark movie quality writing. Meh.
redhdlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Cute story for a light romance. And when I say light, I mean the plot and not all the emotions that the author explores throughout the book. A fun, quick read for a snowy weekend. Less romance than what I expected in one of Molly's books too but did not disappoint.
amym84's review against another edition
5.0
4.5
Molly Harper begins a new series with Sweet Tea and Sympathy centering around the McCready family who have lived in Lake Sackett, Georgia for generations and somewhere along the way began operating a dual bait shop and funeral home.
When she was three Margot Cary's parents divorced. Margot's mother took custody of her, and they moved to Chicago never hearing from her father again who, admittedly, was struggling with being an alcoholic.
Fast-forward thirty years and Margot is an event planner, one of the best in the business. She works with one of the best firms in Chicago, that is, until one of the events she's coordinating goes terribly wrong. Now, fired from her job, a laughingstock within the business, and getting no responses back on her submitted resumes, Margot is at a loss for what to do next.
She's given an answer when long-lost Aunt Tootie calls her and offers her a job in the family business. Having no other option Margot heads back to Lake Sackett, Georgia, a place that she barely remembers. As Margot grows close to the family she never got to know, and the father who she feels abandoned by, she'll start to question what exactly it is that makes her happy. Throw in an attraction to the school principal, a man still healing from heartbreak of his own, and Margot will find out what really matters in life.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Margot's journey was definitely heartbreaking in some spots especially her initial dealings with a father that she barely remembers who hasn't spoken with her going on thirty years. That relationship was the crux of the story, overshadowing the sweet romance.
Sweet Tea and Sympathy is about family. More specifically it's about fathers and daughters. As we see Margot and her father's relationship somewhat mirrored by the relationship between Margot's love interest Kyle, a widower, and his two young daughters. The latter's relationship is indicative of what could have been between Margot and her father had her mother not taken her away. At first it sounds really harsh, the idea of Margot's father not trying to reach out to her in all those years, and you somewhat see her mother in a not-so-pleasant light as well, you know, taking a child away from her father and not trying to bridge that gap between them. But as the story progresses it's clear that some perceptions are only surface deep, and sometimes you have to dig in order to discover the truth of the matter.
The McCready family is wonderful. Full of colorful characters each with their own unique quirks. None of them give Margot grief for possibly not wanting to stay in Lake Sackett if another job opportunity comes along, but they all welcome her with open arms even with the potential leaving hanging in the air. It's through their embracing, that she learns what families are truly all about.
There's a prequel novella [b:Save a Truck, Ride a Redneck|34910090|Save a Truck, Ride a Redneck (Southern Eclectic, #0.5)|Molly Harper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1506616160s/34910090.jpg|56171931], that focuses on Margot's cousin Marianne. It takes place more than five years before Sweet Tea. Having read the novella previously, I was thrown by things that transpired off page, and the fact that so much time had passed between, but if you haven't read the novella there should be no problems getting into this full-length story. It would just enhance your reading.
I can't wait to see which McCready family member will get their story told next. And since they are a pretty close group, I look forward to checking in with the rest of the clan and seeing what trouble they can cause next!
*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Molly Harper begins a new series with Sweet Tea and Sympathy centering around the McCready family who have lived in Lake Sackett, Georgia for generations and somewhere along the way began operating a dual bait shop and funeral home.
When she was three Margot Cary's parents divorced. Margot's mother took custody of her, and they moved to Chicago never hearing from her father again who, admittedly, was struggling with being an alcoholic.
Fast-forward thirty years and Margot is an event planner, one of the best in the business. She works with one of the best firms in Chicago, that is, until one of the events she's coordinating goes terribly wrong. Now, fired from her job, a laughingstock within the business, and getting no responses back on her submitted resumes, Margot is at a loss for what to do next.
She's given an answer when long-lost Aunt Tootie calls her and offers her a job in the family business. Having no other option Margot heads back to Lake Sackett, Georgia, a place that she barely remembers. As Margot grows close to the family she never got to know, and the father who she feels abandoned by, she'll start to question what exactly it is that makes her happy. Throw in an attraction to the school principal, a man still healing from heartbreak of his own, and Margot will find out what really matters in life.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Margot's journey was definitely heartbreaking in some spots especially her initial dealings with a father that she barely remembers who hasn't spoken with her going on thirty years. That relationship was the crux of the story, overshadowing the sweet romance.
Sweet Tea and Sympathy is about family. More specifically it's about fathers and daughters. As we see Margot and her father's relationship somewhat mirrored by the relationship between Margot's love interest Kyle, a widower, and his two young daughters. The latter's relationship is indicative of what could have been between Margot and her father had her mother not taken her away. At first it sounds really harsh, the idea of Margot's father not trying to reach out to her in all those years, and you somewhat see her mother in a not-so-pleasant light as well, you know, taking a child away from her father and not trying to bridge that gap between them. But as the story progresses it's clear that some perceptions are only surface deep, and sometimes you have to dig in order to discover the truth of the matter.
The McCready family is wonderful. Full of colorful characters each with their own unique quirks. None of them give Margot grief for possibly not wanting to stay in Lake Sackett if another job opportunity comes along, but they all welcome her with open arms even with the potential leaving hanging in the air. It's through their embracing, that she learns what families are truly all about.
There's a prequel novella [b:Save a Truck, Ride a Redneck|34910090|Save a Truck, Ride a Redneck (Southern Eclectic, #0.5)|Molly Harper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1506616160s/34910090.jpg|56171931], that focuses on Margot's cousin Marianne. It takes place more than five years before Sweet Tea. Having read the novella previously, I was thrown by things that transpired off page, and the fact that so much time had passed between, but if you haven't read the novella there should be no problems getting into this full-length story. It would just enhance your reading.
I can't wait to see which McCready family member will get their story told next. And since they are a pretty close group, I look forward to checking in with the rest of the clan and seeing what trouble they can cause next!
*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
ireadandsip's review against another edition
5.0
This book was so fun!!!! I found myself wanting to underline sentences and go back and show my friends. This was like watching Schitts Creek in the south.