Review: Sweet Lake by Christine Nolfi

Title: Sweet Lake
Author: Christine Nolfi 
Format: ARC
Publisher: Lake Union
Publish Date: February 28, 2017 (soon!)
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Linnie Wayfair knows just how many people are counting on her. But knowing doesn’t make doing any easier.

Everyone in Sweet Lake, Ohio, wants her to muster all her business sense and return the Wayfair Inn to its former glory. Her parents hope she’ll forgive her scoundrel of a brother and reconcile the family. The eccentric Sweet Lake Sirens want her to open the inn—and her heart—to new possibilities. And her hilarious lifelong friends Jada and Cat are dropping none-too-subtle hints for her to ignite a romance with Daniel Kettering, the sexy attorney who’s been pining for her for years…

Now a shocking turn of events will open old wounds and upend the world Linnie has carefully built. She has to make changes quickly—and the results, though not entirely what she expected, might be what she’s been yearning for all along."

My Two Cents:

In "Sweet Lake," Linnie know that it is up to her to pick up the pieces after her brother, Freddie, leaves devastation in his wake, taking down their family-owned inn and deeply injuring the economy of the small town of Sweet Lake. It falls to Linnie to make things better for everyone even if it means giving up what she really wants to do for herself. The up side to returning to Sweet Lake is that her relationship with Daniel the lawyer may finally take off. This is a good start to a new series by Christine Nolfi that is as sweet as its title.

The characters in this book are great and I am excited to see what happens to them in future books (this is only the first in a series). Linnie is driven. She doesn't want to let anyone else down and will take on being disappointed herself if it means that she makes everything better for everyone else. It is a tough load to carry. I really felt for her because she is trying to clean up some pretty big pieces for something that she did not even have a hand in. Reading about the difficult relationship between her and Freddie was fascinating. You can see how their past has bled into the future. I thought that the author did a really good job of showing the tension between them.

I also thought that she did a good job of showing how appearances can be deceiving. Freddie in particular is not what he seems at first. I loved seeing how the perception of him changes as we get to see who he really is and that his situation is more complicated than it seemed at first.

The romance in the book is good. There is a great deal of chemistry between Linnie and Daniel. As with many romances in books, the love doesn't come easy and Linnie and Daniel's relationship is certainly a ride.

Overall, this is a good book if you like family drama, small town settings, memorable characters, and sweet romances!