#BookReview Gimme Some Sugar by Molly Harper @mollyharperauth @GalleryBooks @FreshFiction

Gimme Some Sugar by Molly Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A young widow returns to Lake Sackett, Georgia to face the ghosts of her past—and decide if she’s ready to take another chance on love—in the third sparkling Southern Eclectic novel that “goes down as easy as honey on a deep-fried Twinkie” (Library Journal, on Sweet Tea and Sympathy).

Lucy Brewer would never have guessed that her best friend, Duffy McCready (of McCready’s Bait Shop & Funeral Home) has been in love with her since they were kids. Fear of rejection and his own romantic complications prevented Duffy from confessing his true feelings in high school, so he stood by and watched her wed Wayne Bowman right after high school. Wayne had always been a cheapskate, so it comes as no surprise when he suffers a fatal accident while fixing his own truck.

Even as her family and friends invade Lucy’s life and insist that the new widow is too fragile to do much beyond weeping, Lucy is ashamed to admit that life without Wayne is easier, less complicated. After all, no one knew what a relentless, soul-grinding trudge marriage to Wayne had been. Only Duffy can tell she’s hiding something.

In need of a fresh start, Lucy asks Duffy to put his cabinet-building skills to use, transforming the town's meat shop into a bake shop. As the bakery takes shape, Lucy and Duffy discover the spark that pulled them together so many years ago. Could this finally be the second chance he’s always hoped for?

Once again Molly Harper “writes characters you can’t help but fall in love with” (RT Book Reviews) in this charming and entertaining love story.

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Lucy Brewer is a young woman who returns home to Lake Sackett, Georgia after the death of her husband. She has decided to raise her young son in her hometown and transform the local meat shop into a bakery. Her best friend since childhood, Duffy McCready, is now divorced from his harpy of a wife. But what Lucy doesn't know if Duffy has been secretly in love with her for years... Could this return mean a second chance for Lucy?

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#BookReview Ain't She a Peach? by Molly Harper @mollyharperauth @FreshFiction @GalleryBooks

Ain't She a Peach? by Molly Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An Atlanta ex-cop comes to sleepy Lake Sackett, Georgia, seeking peace and quiet—but he hasn’t bargained on falling for Frankie, the cutest coroner he’s ever met.

Frankie McCready talks to dead people. Not like a ghost whisperer or anything—but it seems rude to embalm them and not at least say hello.

Fortunately, at the McCready Family Funeral Home & Bait Shop, Frankie’s eccentricities fit right in. Lake Sackett’s embalmer and county coroner, Frankie’s goth styling and passion for nerd culture mean she’s not your typical Southern girl, but the McCreadys are hardly your typical Southern family. Led by Great-Aunt Tootie, the gambling, boozing, dog-collecting matriarch of the family, everyone looks out for one another—which usually means getting up in everyone else’s business.

Maybe that’s why Frankie is so fascinated by new sheriff Eric Linden...a recent transplant from Atlanta, he sees a homicide in every hunting accident or boat crash, which seems a little paranoid for this sleepy tourist town. What’s he so worried about? And what kind of cop can get a job with the Atlanta PD but can’t stand to look at a dead body?

Frankie has other questions that need answering first—namely, who’s behind the recent break-in attempts at the funeral home, and how can she stop them? This one really does seem like a job for the sheriff—and as Frankie and Eric do their best Scooby-Doo impressions to catch their man, they get closer to spilling some secrets they thought were buried forever.

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Sometimes I dare to leave my safe place of crime and thriller novels and venture into the world of feel-good and romance. I actually do it gladly if the book's setting is in the American South. I just love small town stories, where everyone knows everyone and they drink sweet tea. I was sold when AIN'T SHE A PEACH was available to read and I read the blurb about a former Atlanta cop who moves to Lake Sackett, Georgia and falls for Frankie McCready, the cute coroner who talks to the dead. She is just polite, they don't answer back or anything.

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Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper

Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

When Nina Linden is hired to landscape a private island off the New England coast, she sees it as her chance to rebuild her failing business after being cheated by her unscrupulous ex. She never expects that her new client, software mogul Deacon Whitney, would see more in her than just a talented gardener. Deacon has paid top dollar to the crews he’s hired to renovate the desolate Whitney estate—he had to, because the bumps, thumps, and unexplained sightings of ghostly figures in nineteenth-century dress are driving workers away faster than he can say “Boo.”

But Nina shows no signs of being scared away, even as she experiences some unnerving apparitions herself. And as the two of them work closely together to restore the mansion’s faded glory, Deacon realizes that he’s found someone who doesn’t seem to like his fortune more than himself—while Nina may have finally found the one man she can trust with her bruised and battered heart.

But something on the island doesn’t believe in true love…and if Nina and Deacon can’t figure out how to put these angry spirits to rest, their own love doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance.

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The thing I really enjoyed about this book was the nerdiness and the banter. Deacon Whitney may be a billionaire, but he is also a computer geek with who loves old cult fantasy movies like Flash and Kull. He is a rich guy who dresses in superman t-shirt. I thought I was over that whole rich guy, poor girl thing, but that was before I finally found myself reading a book about a nerdy billionaire. There is a lot of flirting between Nina and Deacon in this book and really funny nerdy banter between them.

We also have Jack and Cindy, Cindy is cleaning up the place and Jack is the architect and they have a past history, well Jack asked Cindy out on a couple of days and then she never heard from him again, and she is still pissed of despite the fact that it was years ago. And Jack just doesn't understand why because he doesn't remember that. So Cindy is making him really miserable and he can't understand why because people usually like him.

Then there is Dotty, Deacon's fun loving and impulsive cousin that arrives at the island to write a book about Catherine and Gerald, the women killed and her husband, the suspected killer. She instantly befriends Nina and Cindy and the three of them are having a blast, well when they are not being spooked.

The story in itself wasn't that surprising. I mean it was easy to see the how it all would turn out for both Nina and Deacon and Jack and Cindy. I mean I like them, but the book is very much a paranormal romance, with a big emphasis on romance. The paranormal part was just not the books strongest part, for instance, I suspected the ending quite soon, there was in my opinion just two ways it all could end and my suspicion turn out to be the right one since. And all the parts when there are spooky things happening, well it was was never in any way terrifying. I think humor just got in the way to really make it a good haunted house story. But if a less terrifying paranormal book about a haunted house you are after then this is a very good choice.

I was quite pleased when all the women Nina, Cindy and Dotty instantly like each other and there were no women that were a jealous bitch, then Regina turned up. So typical. Also, it was hardly surprising that Rick, Nina's ex would have a role to play in this book.

So all and all, the humor was great, the character likable, the romance kind of OK despites its obvious pairing, but the story a bit weak. I was just never worried that something would happen to the main characters and the ending was just not that thrilling. One thing I liked was that is a stand alone paranormal book and not part of a series. There are so many series out there that it's nice with a book that isn't planned to be part of a series. As far as I know at least...

Thanks to Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!