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Sweet Home Carolina: A Novel
by T. Lynn Ocean
| List Price: |
$23.95 |
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$16.29 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$7.66 (31%) |
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Hardcover
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Jaxie Parker is a sexy, savvy advertising executive content to savor Atlanta’s nightlife in expensive suits, sipping martinis and gossiping with her best friend. She is enjoying life in the fast lane when, all of a sudden, she’s put in charge of her firm’s annual pro bono project.
Her assignment: to devise a plan for revitalizing the coastal town of Rumton, South Carolina. Years of declining population, lack of industry, and a poor economy threaten to leave Rumton broke and hopeless. But Jaxie doesn’t “do” small towns, much less know how to pull off saving one.
She arrives in Rumton to discover that the lack of shopping and day spas is the least of her worries. There isn’t even a hotel, and she must bunk down with an old man named Pop in an even older house. Determined to succeed---if only to get back home as quickly as possible---Jaxie sets out to meet the townsfolk and work on a plan.
Just when she decides that Rumton is dreadfully uneventful---and her coworker is painfully boring---things heat up pretty quickly. It turns out that there is an interesting man beneath his ever-present suit and tie, after all. And there is much more to Rumton than meets the eye.
A charismatic businessman arrives on the scene offering to buy up land---a development that Jaxie feels is too coincidental. A town resident is murdered, an intriguing history of piracy is uncovered, and a massive storm brews offshore. Although Jaxie is surrounded by danger, she hunkers down to complete the assignment she started, and in the process, she learns a thing or two about life and love.
Advance Praise for T. Lynn Ocean and Sweet Home Carolina
“City girl meets small town in T. Lynn Ocean’s captivating Sweet Home Carolina. Sassy, sexy, sunny, and sure to please.”
---Carolyn Hart, author of Dead Days of Summer
“A sassy city girl who’s allergic to small towns suddenly finds herself living and working in one, the perfect setup for a great story. Jaxie Parker’s adventures and misadventures make this a hilarious and highly entertaining book not to be missed!”
---Cassandra King, author of The Same Sweet Girls
“Take one sophisticated ad executive, drop her in the middle of a small Southern town, and get ready for surprises galore. Sweet Home Carolina mixes memorable characters, great humor, small-town Southern culture, history, and mystery for a delightful romp of a read.”
---Emyl Jenkins author of Stealing with Style
“T. Lynn Ocean’s novels give us characters to root for and laugh with. In Sweet Home Carolina, it’s the spunky and intelligent Jaxie Parker who rethinks her career path after pushing a strappy Cole Haan sandal into a pile of horse dung, in the middle of a town that’s in the middle of nowhere.… A fun and entertaining read.”
---Susan Reinhardt, author of Not Tonight, Honey, Wait ’Til I’m a Size 6
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Snooze... |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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Snooze. One writer said this was fluff, but to say that would be unfair to the marshmallow cream Fluff that goes by that name. There are plenty of Southern writers out there who understand the terrain and can tell a good story. Um, she is not one of them. Not yet, anyway. Maybe if she sticks with it.
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| Fun eccentric characters make this book |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Jaxie Parker loves her high-profile life. Young, sexy, and successful, the advertising executive adores the suits, sounds, and vibrancy of Atlanta. She's not interested in commitment, but is a love 'em and dump 'em kinda gal who can barely operate a microwave. She is stunned when she receives her new project from her boss, Aaron Ackworth, at Shine Advertising and Public Relations--a pro bono project to save a tiny South Carolina coastal town. How can she be expected to survive in a place with no shopping, no bars, no restaurants, and no men?
But she loves her job, so off she goes. Instead of staying with her boss's Aunt Millie, she takes up residence with one of the town's leading citizens, Pop and his pets, Bandit the raccoon and Flush the dog. That part of the plot seems a bit contrived because Jaxie is too savvy to move in with a man she has never met before. But staying with Aaron's Aunt Millie and her twenty-three cats is completely out of the question because Jaxie is highly allergic to cats. And, Rumton's economy is so depressed there isn't even a small hotel she can call home for a few weeks.
Jaxie digs in with gusto, not out of a need to save Rumton from blight, but a need to get back to her real life in Atlanta. As she gets to know the handful of townspeople, they turn out to be quite the eccentric bunch, but the fact that there are more hunky men hanging around than she ever thought possible, makes this a great project for a single woman with her penchant for flirting.
Just about the time Jaxie comes up with a little bit of pirate history and an idea to connect Rumton back to the ocean, a no-good land developer swoops in and starts purchasing options on what seems to be useless tracts of land. And when the town's mayor turns up dead of an apparent heart attack, Jaxie gets her dander up and sets out to learn whom the scallywag is and what he's up to.
Overall, Sweet Home Carolina is a good read. The plot is rather predictable once Jaxie tosses her pretty head the first time, and the evil land developer drops in, just when the action starts to take a nosedive.
Armchair Interviews says: It's a fun, light-hearted, and easy read.
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| Terrific Book Club Selection |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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We have 14 women in our book club and everyone agreed that this novel was a delightful selection. Sometimes you just want to buy a book where you can escape into the story, enjoy the characters, and finish the final chapter with a smile on your face. Ocean's second book is exactly that type of read and most anyone will thoroughly enjoy it. The southern characters are quirky, but real and people you'd actually want to meet in person. The plot is a mystery with some intriguing pirate lore, but one that won't give you a headache trying to keep up.
I just met Tracy Lynn at a book festival in Columbia, SC, and she was as warm and funny in person as I'd imagined her to be.
If you are going on vacation, you want something fun for a rainy day, or your book club needs a break from depressing drama--then Sweet Home Carolina is the perfect choice. I think we'll see her on the bestseller list in a few more years. Kudos to this author and my book club is eagerly awaiting the next one, which she said will be titled Southern Fatality.
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| Grand Strand Beach Read |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Here it is Tracy. I am reviewing your book.
Our book club said 50/50. Half loved have cute.
It is a entertaining read if you like like lite reading.
I personal like a little meat in the book. But I had to read it because the author was coming. But it wasn't bad for a a entertaining night. If you like lite reading you will like this especially if you are from the Grand Strand you will appreciate the local. Good Luck, with your next book.
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| High Calorie Fluff But Fun Reading |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Jaxie Parker is a hard-driving, good-looking, superficial publicist living in Atlanta. She loves the urban life-style, avoids long-term relationships, and enjoys office gossip with her pal, Sheila. Jaxie is horrified when her boss sends her on a pro bono assignment to his former home-town, Rumton, near the South Carolina coast on highway 17. The town is definitely dying, populated by a handful of oldsters. Jaxie's (supposed) assignment is to launch a revitalization project to save the town, and to do it within the next couple of weeks.
Needless to say, there's more to this than meets the eye. Lots of colorful quirky characters quietly win Jaxie over with their understated warmth. An out-of-town investor shows up, before Jaxie can really get started, with his own plans for a different kind of revitalization, maybe not good for the town at all. And a fellow worker, Justin, who was always annoying to Jaxie may have some unrecognized masculine potential.
So, will Jaxie save the town? Will she get together with Justin? Will I tell you about the pet raccoon? Or the pirates? Or the ghost? Probably not. You'll just have to read it for yourself. You'll enjoy it.
Author T. Lynn Ocean writes in a light-hearted breezy way, and the story moves right along. It's mostly fluff, but well-written fluff and very entertaining. You soon find yourself caring about these improbable characters and their improbable, quirky town. I was a little disturbed by the local dialect--not very South Carolina or even southern. But hey--who cares? Enjoy the book but watch the calories. I recommend it. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
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