A review by aliciareadsit
The Magnolia Inn by Carolyn Brown

2.0

⭐️⭐️💫
2.5 STARS

I was horribly disappointed in this book. I usually love Carolyn Brown books, but this didn’t even seem like her voice or style. I almost DNF this book.

What I did like:
-I liked the character of Tucker. I think he may be the only reason I finished this book and gave it more than 1⭐️. He is a well developed character that has a deep and moving story.
-I also liked the overall storyline to this book. A great premise, just wasn’t executed well.

What I didn’t like:
-I did not like Jolene. I found her to be extremely whiny and SO fixated on her mom’s drug/drinking issues and also on Tucker’s weekend drinking. We NEVER heard the end of it. I swear we read something about it on ever page.
-I found that all the extra characters were unnecessary to the story. Would have been fine with less.
-I didn’t find Aunt Sugars point of view necessary.
-This didn’t read much as a romance. This read more like women’s fiction, with them getting together in the last 40 pages. And it was underwhelming. I’m all for slow-burn romance, but I felt it dull and lacking.

Overall I think this was a underwhelming and not well thought-out book. The overall storyline of fighting ones inner demons and finding hope and moving on was good, but the writing wasn’t captivating and the characters were dull. Overall I would not recommend this read.

Content: Clean Romance, lots of drinking/references to alcohol abuse and drug use.
Language: Mild
Religion: mentions of God and church but not a Christian based book.