After her last remaining family member dies, Sara Jenkins goes home to The Hideaway, her grandmother Mags's ramshackle B&B in Sweet Bay, Alabama. She intends to quickly tie up loose ends then return to her busy life and thriving antique shop in New Orleans. Instead, she learns Mags has willed her The Hideaway and charged her with renovating it—no small task considering Mags’s best friends, a motley crew of senior citizens, still live there.
Rather than hurrying back to New Orleans, Sara stays in Sweet Bay and begins the biggest house-rehabbing project of her career. Amid Sheetrock dust, old memories, and a charming contractor, she discovers that slipping back into life at The Hideaway is easier than she expected.
Then she discovers a box Mags left in the attic with clues to a life Sara never imagined for her grandmother. With help from Mags’s friends, Sara begins to piece together the mysterious life of bravery, passion, and choices that changed Mags’s destiny in both marvelous and devastating ways.
When an opportunistic land developer threatens to seize The Hideaway, Sara is forced to make a choice—stay in Sweet Bay and fight for the house and the people she’s grown to love or leave again and return to her successful but solitary life in New Orleans.
My Thoughts
Have I ever said how much I LOVE Southern Lit? There is something special about the love, life and adventure that the characters lead down south that draws me in and I want to live there and experience it all for myself.
This story is no different. It takes place in New Orleans and and Sweet Bay, Alabama. Lauren does such an amazing job in her descriptions of the characters from their personalities to their lives. I couldn't get enough and I wished for more.
Sara was raised by her crazy grandmother and her eclectic friends. She never really enjoyed her upbringing and wanted to leave as soon as she could. And she did. All the way to New Orleans where she would opened her own consignment shop of gorgeous antique finds that she recreated. She talks to her grandmother when she can and the last place she wants to travel to is Sweet Bay Alabama.
Then the unthinkable happens...her grandmother passes away and she never got to say goodbye.
Her best friend agrees to take care of her shop while she goes home to tie up loose ends and meet with the attorney.
And then it happens. She gets sucked back into the charms of Sweet Bay and wonders if she can ever leave again?
So much happens while she's home - the reading of the will, repairs to Mags's house, meeting a charming man, meeting family she didn't know existed and falling in love with Mags friends just to name a few.
What will happen at the end of Sara's stay in Sweet Bay? Will she get rid of it all and head back to the city she fell in love with years ago?
Drink Selection
Southern drinking at its finest, I always find the most delicious drinks come from the south! Try this one, sounds delish - Bulleit Southern Belle!
1 1/4 ounces bourbon whiskey (Bulleit)
1/2 ounce triple sec
12 ounces pineapple juice
1 tablespoon grenadine
2 ounces orange juiceIt wouldn't be a southern drink without a little bit of Bourbon now would it?
Rating
This book was true southern lit from the first page and I give it at least 5 wine glasses! It was THAT good!
About the Author
Link to Purchase
Amazon
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