REVIEW: Sweet Tea and Sympathy by Molly Harper
SWEET TEA AND SYMPATHY by Molly Harper is exactly the type of zany small-town contemporary I’ve craved and never found. I was thoroughly entertained by Harper’s wacky characters. If you love backwoods country as much as I do, you’re going love this hilarious family with hearts of gold.
Margot Cary loses her job as a high-class event planner during a comical fiasco involving shrimp-eating flamingos at an elegant fundraiser with the elite of Chicago. The photos and one-liners hit social media and make her a PR pariah. The only job offers she gets is to work for Aunt Tootie, on her long-lost father’s side, at the McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop. Reluctantly, Margot accepts and moves to backwoods Georgia. That’s when the real fun begins.
Margot meets all her relatives who seem more inclined to be making moonshine, than running a profitable “bait and bury” that boasts its sensitivity to sadness. One by one her cousins greet Margot with their friendly and often inappropriate behavior, take her out drinking, and get her smashed. That’s when she meets the Mr. Gorgeous and Troubled, a dark and mysterious man she makes out with in the parking lot of the local bar.
Things can only get better from here, right?
I have wanted to read Molly Harper’s books for some time but I’m not usually a paranormal fan, so I avoided the fang stories. I can’t believe that she picked backwoods country folk, who live at a compound of cabins on a lake, to feature in this perfectly named new series, SOUTHERN ECLECTIC. That setting is just my style and held me captivated from beginning to end. It’s the perfect scenario for small-town shenanigans.
This novel called to me when I saw the sweet tea cover, but it was the blurb that sunk the deal. Comedy sometimes works too hard to be funny, so I was leery of trying this because I hate to be disappointed. I was skeptical until I had my first of many laugh-out-loud moments which slammed my book bliss.
Margot Cary is a bit uptight, so she’s not easy to love as a heroine. She has some stuck-up ways, which makes it funnier to witness her cousins making a real McCready out of her. Margot has issues to work through on the way to her happy-ever-after, and I was sure she was going to screw up her relationship with Kyle. And talk about unusual jobs for a heroine. A funeral home connected to a bait shop? That’s a mess waiting to fall into hilarity!
My only disappointment was that the end felt rushed and incomplete. There isn’t a cliff hanger which was appreciated. I’m hoping that book two will round out this couple’s happy-ever-after, so it’s more than a happy-for-now. Maybe it’s a good thing that I was just a little disappointed because it meant I didn’t want the story to end.
SWEET TEA AND SYMPATHY is my favorite romantic comedy in several years. It’s right up there with another favorite, ALL I WANT by Jill Shalvis. I love the quirky town and Margot’s over-the-top cousins. One of the cousins reminds me of Megan in the movie Bridesmaids, but Donna is even rougher in a peculiar way. Margot and Kyle are cute together. The humor is fresh and not overly done. It’s rare for an author to create the flawless mix that I enjoy, but Molly Harper has a gift for the perfect blend of humor and heartfelt emotion. I can’t wait for more SOUTHERN ECLECTIC – it’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for!
Review by Dorine, courtesy of The Zest Quest. Advanced digital copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.
Sweet Tea and Sympathy by Molly Harper
Category: Romantic Comedy
Publisher: Gallery Books (November 21, 2017)
ISBN: 978-1501151224
Rate 4.5 out of 5
