Book Review and Giveaway - The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton

Book Synopsis
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.

Purchase Links

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My Review

The Hideaway is a wonderful debut novel by Lauren K. Denton.  It tells the story of Sara, a single woman who owns a successful antique store in New Orleans.  When her grandmother Mags passes away suddenly, she discovers she has inherited her old Victorian bed and breakfast in Sweet Bay, Alabama.  

Mags discovered the bed and breakfast in 1960 when she was fleeing her unfaithful husband and an unhappy marriage.  Spending time there changes her life.  Sara also finds her life changed by the time she spends in Sweet Bay.

I really loved everything about this novel.  Sara and Mags are so likeable and sympathetic;  I found a hard time putting the book down at night because I wanted to know what would happen next with their stories.

This is a dual storyline book, set in the 1960's - 1970's (Mags) and the present (Sara).  The dual storylines are so well done.  I really enjoyed the way the author captured the different times and characters.

I loved the southern setting and the warm, nostalgic tone of this story.  This is a book about love, about family, about second chances, and finding yourself in unexpected ways.

I would love to read a sequel to The Hideaway because I want to know what happened next with these wonderful characters.  I recommend this book highly for fans of women's fiction, southern fiction, and uplifting summer reads.

Author Bio

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren K. Denton now lives with her husband and two daughters in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, faith, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent. On any given day, she’d rather be at the beach with her family and a stack of books. The Hideaway is her first novel.

Connect with Lauren

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Giveaway

One lucky reader will win a copy of The Hideaway.  This giveaway is open to the U.S. and Canada, and it will end at midnight on April 28.  The winner will be notified by email and needs to respond within 48 hours.  The author or her publicist will mail the book directly to the winner. 

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I received a copy of this book from TLC Book Tours.