The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton

• File Size: 881 KB
• Print Length: 352 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (April 11, 2017)
• Publication Date: April 11, 2017
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishing

About the Book:

When her grandmother’s will wrenches Sara back home, she learns more about Margaret Van Buren in the wake of her death than she ever knew 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 The Hideaway to her and charged her with renovating it—no small task considering her grandmother’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 drywall 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 her grandmother’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.

My Thoughts:

I love, love, LOVE when I find a brand new, debut author!!  Lauren K. Denton is an outstanding storyteller, and her new novel, "The Hideaway" is a keeper!  One of my favorites of this year, and Denton breaks tradition with more family relationships and less romance.

From the cover to the content, I loved every moment spent with this book.  Sara and Mags, though separated by decades, are kindred souls.  It just takes remodeling the inn to reform the relationship she could have had with her grandmother.

Denton also paints a portrait of family that is exquisite.  Sara is alone, the final branch on her family tree; and yet she's not alone.  The people that surrounded her grandmother end up being her posse by the end of the tale.

Be prepared to pray for imaginary people!  When the unscrupulous developer comes calling, you'll want to take a swing at him and pray protection over Sara and her companions.  Losing The Hideaway would be losing her heart, and Denton drags you in page after page.

What a wonderful story.  I can't wait to read it one more time, and I'm giving "The Hideaway" my "Oh, The Feels!" award, and giving Lauren K. Denton my "One To Watch".  Keep your eye on this writer--greater things are yet to come--I can feel it in my bookmarks!

I received a free copy from the publisher and no services or opinions were given in exchange.

Mark Your Place,

Deena