The Sweetest Thing

Jennie Copeland has agreed to completely swear off men forever following the divorce of her husband David eighteen months ago, after learning he was in love with someone he worked with who was much younger than she was. Now Jennie has opted to move to the quiet country away from the city that once consumed her and her three children, even if it means leaving all traces of their former life behind as well as friends and family. Moving to a small four acre farm in Devon, she has found the inspiration to begin her own small business of baking cakes and sweet treats. Only her kids aren't the least bit convinced the country life is for them.

For her oldest son Adam, the internet speed is more along the lines of snail mail, her precocious daughter Georgia, who is more like Jennie than she could imagine, is the only one who is convinced this is a great idea, followed on the heels of Sophie the youngest who can't imagine living in a disgusting old farm house inundated by cows. Yet despite all their misgivings the Copeland family buckles down and attempts to give it a go if only Jennie can convince herself this is a good decision. Her former ex believes that she has truly bitten off more than she can chew and her neighbor gives her more than just a great view to look at. He is the one who sold her his former farm house, while maintaining a home on the existing 150 acres of land for milking cows.

Will Jennie's vow to swear off men for good last as well as she thought or does love hold a second chance in it's grip for both Jennie and Guy Barnes, who have both been left with heart ache in their past lives? Only time will tell what kind of story plots, author Cathy Woodman has in store in her latest novel, The Sweetest Thing. I received The Sweetest Thing by Cathy Woodman compliments of Arrow Books and TLC Book Tours for my honest review and did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable one. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own and once again I am delighted to be taken back to Devon for a different look at the country life I had discovered when I read Country Loving, one her many books in the Talyton St George Series of novels she has written. Her writing style once again has managed to transport me to Devon and to the sights, sounds and warmth of the people who interact with both Jennie and Guy. From learning what it takes to raise chickens and get them to lay eggs to how milk gets from cows to cartons. Along the way love begins to take root and you find yourself hoping they will realize their feelings before you get to the end. I won't spoil it but you'll definitely want this one! I personally rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars!

For more information about The Sweetest Thing, Cathy Woodman or where to pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Sweetest Thing by Cathy Woodman

You can also find Cathy Woodman on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on The Sweetest Thing from the TLC Book Tours, please click here. 

• Series: Talyton St George (Book 3)
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (May 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099551632
• ISBN-13: 978-0099551638
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces

   

The Sweetest Thing

Anne "Perri" Singleton's world is defined by the security of family, the camaraderie of friends at an exclusive Atlanta girls' school, for an enviable social life. She isn't looking for new friends when Mary Dobbs Dillard arrives from Chicago. Besides, "Dobbs," the passionate and fiercely individualistic daughter of an itinerant minster, is her opposite in every way.

But just as the Great Depression collides disastrously with Perri's well-ordered life, friendship blossoms - a friendship that will be tested by jealousy, betrayal, and family secrets....

With her endearing characters and poignant storytelling, Atlanta native Elizabeth Musser vividly re-creates the charm of her beloved city amid the poverty and plenty that shaped the 1930's in the latest novel The Sweetest Thing.

I received the book The Sweetest Thing compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and was transported back to the time of the Great Depression through the remarkable storytelling of Elizabeth Musser. It's hard to imagine just how difficult it was for some families to weather the storm of not knowing if things would right themselves once again when President Roosevelt took office. Whether banks would reopen again, whether their would be enough food to feed their families at night, and how some would get through a day.

I didn't realize how many people committed suicide even though that very same thing happened here in 2008 when our own financial upheaval occurred in the banking world. We get to share in the close friendship of Perri and Dobbs and see how each of them will help get them through this storm. Perri is the daughter of a wealthy family who doesn't seem concerned with the stock market fall out until it affects her father, while Dobbs comes from a poor family whose goal is to provide for a meal for her family at the end of the day. This one rates a 5 out of 5 stars!

Here's even more great information about the book, the author and even a first chapter glimpse.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Sweetest Thing • Bethany House (June 1, 2011) by Elizabeth Musser



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Elizabeth Musser, an Atlanta native, studied English and French literature at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. While at Vanderbilt, I had the opportunity to spend a semester in Aix-en-Provence,



France. During her Senior year at Vanderbilt, she attended a five-day missions conference for students and discovered an amazing thing: God had missionaries in France, and she felt God calling her there. After graduation, she spent eight months training for the mission field in Chicago, Illinois and then two years serving in a tiny Protestant church in Eastern France where she met her future husband.



Elizabeth lives in southern France with her husband and their two sons. She find her work as a mother, wife, author and missionary filled with challenges and chances to see God’s hand at work daily in her life. Inspiration for her novels come both from her experiences growing up in Atlanta as well as through the people she meets in her work in France. Many conversations within her novels are inspired from real-life conversations with skeptics and seekers alike.



Her acclaimed novel, The Swan House, was a Book Sense bestseller list in the Southeast and was selected as one of the top Christian books for 2001 by Amazon's editors. Searching for Eternity is her sixth novel.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Compelling Southern Novel Explores Atlanta Society in the 1930s.



The Singleton family’s fortunes seem unaffected by the Great Depression, and Perri—along with the other girls at Atlanta’s elite Washington Seminary—lives a life of tea dances with college boys and matinees at the cinema. When tragedy strikes, Perri is confronted with a world far different from the one she has always known.



At the insistence of her parents, Mary ‘Dobbs’ Dillard, the daughter of an itinerant preacher, is sent from inner-city Chicago to live with her aunt and attend Washington Seminary. Dobbs, passionate, fiercely individualistic and deeply religious, enters Washington Seminary as a bull in a china shop and shocks the girls with her frank talk about poverty and her stories of revival on the road. Her arrival intersects at the point of Perri’s ultimate crisis, and the tragedy forges an unlikely friendship.



The Sweetest Thing tells the story of two remarkable young women—opposites in every way—fighting for the same goal: surviving tumultuous change. Just as the Great Depression collides disastrously with Perri's well-ordered life, friendship blossoms--a friendship that will be tested by jealousy, betrayal, and family secrets...



If you would like to read the first chapter of The Sweetest Thing, go HERE.