The Hideaway

By: Lauren K. Denton

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

Why I Choose this Book:

It looked like a delightful read, and when I read the back cover blurb and sample pages it drew me in. I was headed away for vacation and I thought it would be fun to read this book while away. Plus, my sister just remolded an old house, so I figured it was rather fitting.

What I Thought About This Book:

Ugh. That pretty much sums it up. I dislike reviewing books that I didn’t like, but I didn’t just “not like” this book, I was actually unhappy with it. It not only talks about, but also promotes, behaviors and lifestyles that are completely against what the Bible teaches. Since this book was published by Thomas Nelson, I expected something better. (Note: Although I wouldn’t condone a book that is written like this, I would give more leeway in a review if the book wasn’t published by a Christian publishing company. It’s mainly because of the expectations I had because of the publishing company that made me so disappointed with the book.)

I read the first fourth or third of the book, before realizing that the sin the characters were so obviously indulging in probably wasn’t going to be addressed, but instead was being endorsed. After that I scanned the rest of the book, looking for redemption to come, but I never found it.

Conclusion:

I’m disappointed. The plot might be well-done, the characters might be well-written (although in reality I didn’t really get into either), but the aforementioned content makes it so I won’t recommend nor knowingly read more from this author.

Rating:

I’m giving The Hideaway 1 out of 5 stars.

*I received this book from BookLook