Review: Sweet Waters: An Otter Bay Novel by Julie Carobini

My latest book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program, Sweet Waters by Julie Carobini was okay.

Summary: There’s nothing left for Tara Sweet in landlocked Dexton, Missouri. Her fiancé called off their wedding, her sister is moving to Manhattan, and now her mother is marrying a much younger man with plans for a yearlong honeymoon in Europe. Tara believes a move back to her childhood home of Otter Bay, California, will help restore the fun and fearlessness she’s already missing in her twenties. Playing back memories of idyllic times spent there with her father along the majestic coast, a fairytale seems just around the corner.

Better make that a soap opera. After Tara finds a job in Otter Bay, makes friends at The Red Abalone Grill, and perhaps even a new flame in firefighter Josh, she begins to uncover shocking secrets about why her family left this heaven on earth all those years ago. And though she will have to question everything she has ever known, the faith that Tara must depend upon will be sweeter than ever before.

I am not much of a romance reader, but I do love a good story about women overcoming and women friendships. (And plenty of my mystery and other favorite books have romance in them.) This book had elements of both but didn't really make me 'feel' the connections. I enjoyed the characters and felt they were quite interesting and real. But the story just didn't compel me, if that makes sense.

The story has some Christian elements in it which do fit well with the story. The book is labeled in different spots as romance, christian fiction, and women's fiction. I think all those fit. The book will be available in August of this year.

If there are other opinions out there about this book, especially folks that enjoyed it more than I did, I'd love to link to them to give other perspectives. Let me know.

Rating: 3/5 stars