Gimme Some Sugar

Our Review

GIMME SOME SUGAR by Molly Harper is an entertaining addition to her SOUTHERN ECLECTIC series. Although I thought the first two books were more laugh-out-loud funny than this one, it’s still a great story with a sweet conclusion that I enjoyed very much.

I look forward to each book in this series, wondering what author Molly Harper will do next to make me laugh. This one started with a great first line that clued me in on how this sweet baker was going to get herself into a pickle. As you can well imagine, baking for a bachelorette party can be a naughty business.

Lucy Brewer moves back to her hometown to start over and raise her young son after her husband’s death. She hopes her meddling mother-in-law will behave herself, but that’s wishful thinking as the woman finds all kinds of ways to test Lucy’s good nature.

The best part about moving back is her former best friend, Duffy McCready. Can they renew their friendship without letting their attraction to one another take over?

This friends-to-lovers trope doesn’t contain a complicated plot to move the story forward, just a lot of fun getting to know our main characters and their past relationships, as well as how they’ll each fall in love again. Lucy married her childhood sweetheart who ended up cheating on her consistently. Duffy married and divorced during that time, but his ex seems to think she can come back into his life anytime she pleases.

The cousins we’ve come to love in the first two books take an active role in this novel. It’s fun to reunite with them, so I highly suggest you read the first two books to get the gist of this one. This isn’t the novel to start if you haven’t read the other two in this series. It’s good. It’s funny. But it’s not the overwhelming awesomeness of the first two. For fans of the series, it’s a great book, but I’d hate to see a new reader be confused without becoming addicted to this series.

The only inconsistency I found was Lucy’s son, Sam, who seemed to speak like an older child. He’s four or five, about to enter kindergarten, and he just seemed more mature in his interactions with others. Not that this is impossible, but it threw me off and I kept thinking of him as an eight-year-old. He’s still a cute kid and adds entertainment to the story.

My favorite parts were the updates on Margot and Kyle. Margot is especially highlighted in this book, so I enjoyed her character development. I would have enjoyed a bit more about Frankie because so far, she’s my favorite character. She’s here as a cameo, but I’m greedy for more on her.

Author Molly Harper is especially good at snark and accentuating backwoods oddities in this loving family. Think of those well-loved TV series like the Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry RFD, or Sanford and Son. Those classic funny small towns where anything can happen. That’s the kind of fun that you’ll find in these books. In this series, we have a funeral home and bait shop combination owned by this peculiar family, which is funny enough, but even crazier is how normal it seems.

Then there is an aunt who rescues dogs and finds a way to home them with anyone she encounters, even if they never wanted a dog before. Her over-protectiveness for her critters is precious, and witnessing the dogs finding their forever homes is heartwarming.

I’ve enjoyed the SOUTHERN ECLECTIC series so much that I recently downloaded all the novellas that go with the main books: SAVE A TRUCK, RIDE A REDNECK (Book 0.05), PEACHY FLIPPIN’ KEEN (Book 1.5), and A FEW PECANS SHORT OF A PIE (Book 2.5). The main books of the series are highly recommended to be read in order: SWEET TEA AND SYMPATHY (Book 1), AIN’T SHE A PEACH (Book 2), and GIMME SOME SUGAR (Book 3).

For fans – GIMME SOME SUGAR is a super easy book to gobble up quickly. I wasn’t bored, smiled a lot, and was enamored by all the McCready clan changes coming up. It makes me anxious to find out where this series will go next. The changes shocked some of the characters, so I’m thinking their adjustments will add hilarity to their future. If you love romantic comedy and down-home characters who are easy to love, then I highly recommend you load up your digital reader today with the SOUTHERN ECLECTIC series, so you can race through these books you’ll crave.