Sweet Home Carolina: A Novel [Hardcover]

T. Lynn Ocean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2006

Jaxie Parker is a sexy, savvy advertising executive content to savor Atlanta's nightlife in expensive suits, sipping martinis and gossiping with her best friend. She is enjoying life in the fast lane when, all of a sudden, she's put in charge of her firm's annual pro bono project.

Her assignment: to devise a plan for revitalizing the coastal town of Rumton, South Carolina. Years of declining population, lack of industry, and a poor economy threaten to leave Rumton broke and hopeless. But Jaxie doesn't "do" small towns, much less know how to pull off saving one.

She arrives in Rumton to discover that the lack of shopping and day spas is the least of her worries. There isn't even a hotel, and she must bunk down with an old man named Pop in an even older house. Determined to succeed---if only to get back home as quickly as possible---Jaxie sets out to meet the townsfolk and work on a plan.

Just when she decides that Rumton is dreadfully uneventful---and her coworker is painfully boring---things heat up pretty quickly. It turns out that there is an interesting man beneath his ever-present suit and tie, after all. And there is much more to Rumton than meets the eye.

A charismatic businessman arrives on the scene offering to buy up land---a development that Jaxie feels is too coincidental. A town resident is murdered, an intriguing history of piracy is uncovered, and a massive storm brews offshore. Although Jaxie is surrounded by danger, she hunkers down to complete the assignment she started, and in the process, she learns a thing or two about life and love.

 

Advance Praise for T. Lynn Ocean and Sweet Home Carolina
 
"City girl meets small town in T. Lynn Ocean's captivating Sweet Home Carolina. Sassy, sexy, sunny, and sure to please."
---Carolyn Hart, author of Dead Days of Summer
 
"A sassy city girl who's allergic to small towns suddenly finds herself living and working in one, the perfect setup for a great story. Jaxie Parker's adventures and misadventures make this a hilarious and highly entertaining book not to be missed!"
---Cassandra King, author of The Same Sweet Girls
 
"Take one sophisticated ad executive, drop her in the middle of a small Southern town, and get ready for surprises galore. Sweet Home Carolina mixes memorable characters, great humor, small-town Southern culture, history, and mystery for a delightful romp of a read."
---Emyl Jenkins author of Stealing with Style
 
"T. Lynn Ocean's novels give us characters to root for and laugh with. In Sweet Home Carolina, it's the spunky and intelligent Jaxie Parker who rethinks her career path after pushing a strappy Cole Haan sandal into a pile of horse dung, in the middle of a town that's in the middle of nowhere.… A fun and entertaining read."
---Susan Reinhardt, author of Not Tonight, Honey, Wait 'Til I'm a Size 6

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ocean revisits her native South Carolina in a folksy second novel (Fool Me Once) that turns on a familiar theme: evil land developers threaten quaint down-home town with extinction. Narrator Jaxie Parker is an aggressive exec for a top Atlanta advertising firm who grudgingly accepts a pro bono assignment to pilot a revitalization project for her boss's boyhood hometown. The "backwoods" South Carolina coastal village of Rumton, a tiny community with a Medicare-age demographic and not much more, doesn't even boast a motel, so Jaxie is put up at the home of local old-timer, Pop. Though unimpressed at first ("Rumton was a dive"), a couple weeks of Pop's hospitality (and Southern cooking) persuade Jaxie to get mother hen protective once shifty-eyed out-of-towner Lester "the Investor" Smoak offers to buy options in an apparent land grab. Falling in love with ad agency colleague Justin, who also happens to be Pop's hunky nephew, also brightens her stay. United against the shady interloper, Ocean's handful of homespun heroes must figure out a way to save Rumton. Predictably, Jaxie sheds her slick city skin and learns the redemptive lesson "that's it's the simple things that pull heartstrings."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When Atlanta public relations exec Jaxie Parker is assigned a pro bono case to revive her boss' sleepy hometown in South Carolina, it seems like a lost cause. The town's only movie theater is also its town hall and volunteer fire station, and the biggest social event happens when the judge holds court there--not to mention, there's nowhere to get a good martini. What's the ultimate city girl to do? Jaxie ends up falling in love with the town and its quirky residents and discovers a pirate-filled past that could be the ticket to luring tourists. Ocean stirs in a little romance, a little mystery, and a little comic relief to make this a quick-paced, lighthearted read. She perfectly captures the eccentricities and the warmheartedness of small-town life. Readers will cheer for these likable characters as they rally to save their town. Aleksandra Kostovski
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (May 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312343345
• ISBN-13: 978-0312343347
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,372,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, lite fare for summertime reading (on the beach, preferably!), June 26, 2006

By 

M. Prufer (Myrtle Beach, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sweet Home Carolina: A Novel (Hardcover)

"Sweet Home Carolina" is T. Lynn Ocean's second novel, and it's even better than the first, which was excellent, especially for a debut novel. Jaxie Parker is a young career woman who thrives on the big city life from her ad agency perch in Atlanta. She's into shoe shopping, latte-sipping and a love 'em and dump 'em lifestyle. But then, her boss sends her to his slowly dying smalltown hometown of Rumton, S.C., and orders her to bring the town back to life as a pro bono venture. Jaxie is crestfallen and wonders how she will spend her time in Podunkville.

She manages just fine, makes lots of new friends (eccentrics seem to abound in Rumton,but isn't that about right?) and develops an appreciation for a different kind of lifestyle. It's not all about Jaxie, though. There's a sunken ship, ghosts, family secrets, a murder, romance and intrigue, even a five-star hurricane. An investor arrives in Rumton in the nick of time to buy up the townspeople's land -- but can he be trusted to do what he says? Jaxie thinks not, and goes to work debunking his promises. After all, the town's future is in her hands.

"Sweet Home Carolina" is an entertaining romp of a read with lots of Southern sassiness and charm and even a Chat 'n' Chew where you serve yourself about half the time. Who could ask for more? Read this book -- you won't be disappointed. And, if you live nearby, the author might come visit your book club!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Book Club Selection, March 1, 2007

By 

Book Belles (columbia, sc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet Home Carolina: A Novel (Hardcover)

We have 14 women in our book club and everyone agreed that this novel was a delightful selection. Sometimes you just want to buy a book where you can escape into the story, enjoy the characters, and finish the final chapter with a smile on your face. Ocean's second book is exactly that type of read and most anyone will thoroughly enjoy it. The southern characters are quirky, but real and people you'd actually want to meet in person. The plot is a mystery with some intriguing pirate lore, but one that won't give you a headache trying to keep up.

I just met Tracy Lynn at a book festival in Columbia, SC, and she was as warm and funny in person as I'd imagined her to be.

If you are going on vacation, you want something fun for a rainy day, or your book club needs a break from depressing drama--then Sweet Home Carolina is the perfect choice. I think we'll see her on the bestseller list in a few more years. Kudos to this author and my book club is eagerly awaiting the next one, which she said will be titled Southern Fatality.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Author, June 6, 2006

By 

T. Lynn Ocean - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet Home Carolina: A Novel (Hardcover)

Of course I'm giving it lots of stars, since I wrote it! But please note that professional reviewers overwhelmingly agree.

BOOKLIST says, "Readers will cheer for these likeable characters as they rally to save their town," and ROMANTIC TIMES calls this book, "delightful and entertaining." Several newspapers have taken notice and given their endorsement, such as Charleston's POST AND COURIER, who calls the book, "charming" and Wilmington's STAR-NEWS, who says, "...this novel hit's the bull's-eye for an amusing read."

Even some of your favorite authors such as Cassandra King, Carolyn Hart, and Mary Jane Clark read an advance copy and gave SWEET HOME CAROLINA an excellent blurb.

I write to entertain, and here's the recipe for SWEET HOME CAROLINA: take a successful career woman who loves everything metropolitan, add a small quirky town that doesn't have dry martinis or day spas, mix in a murder, a treasure and some spicy pirate history. Laugh often and enjoy your visit to Rumton, South Carolina!


Tracy
T. Lynn Ocean