06 April 2017

Full of Southern Charm | The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton

ABOUT THE BOOK

When her grandmother’s will wrenches Sara back home from New Orleans, she learns more about Margaret Van Buren in the wake of her death than she ever did in life.

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 REVIEW

Lauren K. Denton’s The Hideaway is a sweet story, full of Southern charm, about a woman and her grandmother, returning home and discovering the truth. With dual timelines, intriguing secrets, vivid descriptions, and a great cast of characters, Denton’s debut novel succeeds in captivating and engaging. I enjoyed it from beginning to end and now look forward to reading more of this author in the future. Readers of contemporary Southern fiction, The Hideaway is a delightful read, and I recommend it.

★★★★

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers, I received a complimentary copy of The Hideaway and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.

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