Reviewer: Connie Payne
Title: Sweet Home Carolina
Author: Patricia Rice
Publisher: Ballantine
ISBN: 978-343-48261-7
Release Date: January 2007
Genre/Sub-genre: Contemporary Romance
Year/Setting: Present day - NC
Overall Rating: 4.5
Sexual Content Rating: Subtle/Sensual
Language (Profanity) Content Rating: None
Violent Content Rating: None
Patricia's Website:
www.patriciarice.com
Scared, practically jobless, and very unsure of herself, divorced Amy Warren knows she has no choice but to sell the house and possibly uproot her two adorable young children from all that they’ve ever known. Unless she and the town win the bid to buy the closed textile mill and reopen it.
But that hope is soon dashed when a sexy European, Jacques (Zack) St. Etienne, and his "entourage" enters the small town of Northfork, NC. When he expresses an interest in purchasing the mill, Amy hopes and plans to reopen the mill are dashed. There’s no chance the town can outbid Jacques. Perhaps, though, she can talk him out of it, or outmaneuver him.
Zack is a successful businessman who knows the world of textile and restoration. He only came to Northfork for one purpose and it had nothing to do with opening the local textile mill as the locals hoped. In and out of town. That was the plan. Yet for some reason Zack’s drawn not only to Amy (he finds ways to be with her), but also to the citizen’s of the small town.
When Zack wins the bid, becoming the owner of the mill, things start to change both in him and subsequently the town. Before too long, Amy and Zack are working together, are drawn to each other. Amy is afraid and reluctant and Zack is almost befuddled and unsure by what’s happening in his life. It’s going to take more than attraction to bring these two together. It just might take an act of nature to make them come to their senses.
Sweet Home Carolina brings together two emotionally distraught souls. Both Amy and Zack are emotionally handicapped, each with their own memories and scars. It’s these that keep them from moving forward into a relationship.
Ms. Rice appears to have the gift for grasping the reader’s attention. No gimmicks, no fanfare. It’s simply her way of blending the characters, plot, and emotion that finds the reader unable to put down her book.
I love how Zack appears the perfect hero as he is; yet there are the underlying internal conflicts that have him finally reaching to be who he really wants to be. I also like how Amy struggles with all the changes in her life, internally, yet puts herself out on the line while being scared of the outcome.
There’s little doubt in my mind that the romance reader will find themselves emitting an ooh here and an ahh there over this heart tugging romance.
Connie
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