Sweet Tea and Secrets- Nancy Naigle

In this gentle southern US mystery, Jill returns to her small town home in Virginia after losing her beloved grandmother, Pearl. Of course, her first love Garrett is also still there, with whom she has unfinished business. Under pressure from Bradley (current boyfriend/boss) to return to her new life in Savannah, she has to decide what to do with Pearl’s legacy, and solve the mystery of Pearl’s own great love. In doing so she uncovers another puzzle involving Bradley, who may not be the good philanthropist he claims to be.

Kooks for your Kindle?-Lots of real, unexaggerated supporting characters, and Jill is fortunate to have a lawyer for a best friend, considering the events unfolding here. The other locals are colourful without being over the top. Garrett could easily have been bland (he’s quite vanilla and very considerate to elderly ladies), but luckily he has an edge and makes an attractive leading man, fortuitously blessed with patience and good timing in an emergency.

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Jill is reasonably strong, even when things take a turn for the dangerous. However, she may be a little gullible and naive for believing the evidence when she left Garrett the year before. I’d usually struggle to empathise with someone so virtuous, but she has enough pluck to be interesting.

Painting a picture for your paperback?– The author creates a homely southern town, with a strong community of good God-fearin’ folk. It’s very wholesome and a nice change from some of the harsher frothy reads out there. Some of the local cuisine is featured, with some yummy looking recipes included at the end, although I fear anyone imbibing that much sugar in their sweet tea on a regular basis may fall into a sugar coma or be the size of a house.

Nookie for your Nook?– So clean in content and language that not only could you recommend it to the M.I.L, but maybe even your great-granny.

Evaluation of your eBook?– A couple of almost extraneous kindle name-drops might be explained by the fact that the book seems to be self published on Amazon, I’m not sure how it works, but if it enables more reasonably priced easy reads like this, then great. Overall a nice page-turner, with some life-threatening excitement towards the end. The dialogue is more good-natured than snappy, but it fits the events happening in a period of bereavement and mystery. I felt it would have been best read in the shade on a sunny day with an icy drink, but don’t let that stop you if your circumstances differ. It’s a warm and fuzzy book that effectively conveys the type of southern community that will rally around when tragedy strikes.

Frothy Ranking: 3/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

US: Amazon for $1.99

UK: Amazon for £2.68