I expected more from this novel, to be honest. It is a pleasant, sweet novel about coming home and about a value of family we create, yet the final feeling is somehow bland. Maybe because the novel goes the half way for me - scandalous enough to make waves in the Christian circles probably (an extramarital affair! a gay best friend!), yet in reality it is quite weak with the real message. I can do with an love affair (after all, we live in the fallen world) - but I sorely miss the message about real, deep forgiveness (the newspaper posthumous announcement is not sassy, but SO ugly). Gay best friend and all for the modern angle, but it is really OK to treat your boyfriend (who has been absolutely on your side), with a cold silence just because life happens?

See, I read Christian fiction, but I also read tons of secular fiction, as my aim is to read something of quality and I believe that I can get some morale of the story, so to say, from any book containing some food for thought. From a secular point this book is on the mild side - pleasant, unoffensive. From a Christian point - something is amiss. Some catharsis happens in Mags, but Sara goes untouched by anything more deep, things are moving around her because the other people love her, not because she goes the extra mile for them.

I loved this novel! Although there were parts that made me sad, there were also parts that were full of joy, happiness, and new beginnings. The love story that was interwoven throughout the whole book was beautiful! I enjoyed the characters, especially the ones who lived in the bed and breakfast for years. Sara’s grandmother has passed away. Sara leaves behind her antique shop in New Orleans to visit Sweet Bay, Alabama, the area where she grew up and where her grandmother Mags still lived. She quickly finds out that Mags has left her B&B The Hideaway to Sara in her will. And Sara finds out secrets that Mags has kept from everyone.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I loved this light-hearted easy read that moved fairly quickly and was exactly what I needed at the time. Great story and characters keep it going.

4.0 - it was a good “getaway” book: beautifully written, nostalgic, and a quick read. It makes me more interested in reading some of her other novels.

This is a story about love, growing up, growing older and growing into yourself. A young woman finds her life completely changed and infinitely enriched following the death of her beloved grandmother.

After reading such heavy, dark books that I’ve tackled lately, I needed a book that was as fun, emotionally healing, and loving as The Hideaway. Lauren K. Denton’s debut is a knockout–full of family ties, self-discovery, a little bit of mystery and romance, and a bunch of digging into your family’s past to find out where you came from and where you now below. I really love stories where a character reluctantly returns to their small hometown to take care of things, even though they’re now living it up in the city and can’t imagine how they ever survived somewhere with such a slow pace and everyone knows your business. It lets me live vicariously through the book since there’s no way I’d ever move back to my small town of 2500 citizens, even if you paid me. Although I don’t think my husband would complain too much if we moved back down there…

In The Hideaway, Sara Jenkins is living what she thinks is a satisfying life in New Orleans. She’s the owner of a successful antiques store and she also remodels clients houses, but she’s still single at thirty–mostly by her own choices. When her grandmother unexpectedly passes away and wills Sara her crumbling bed and breakfast called The Hideaway, Sara has to return to the small town of Sweet Bay, Alabama where she’d fled as soon as she’d finished high school at eighteen. Expecting to return for only a week in the town where her grandmother raised her among a motley group of senior citizens, Sara soon learns that her grandmother Mags wants her to restore The Hideaway to its former glory while she looks out for the four roommates that checked in years ago and never checked out. But Sara soon finds that a handsome contractor makes being back in her hometown quite a bit easier than it was before, and she really loves fixing up the bed and breakfast. If only a slimy real estate developer doesn’t try to pull the rug out from under all of them…

The Hideaway is told in dual points of view: Mags mostly in the 1960s, but up through present day, and Sara’s present day over several months. Mags’ story is one of being in an unhappy marriage, but finding your true calling with a ragtag group of strangers that become friends at a beautiful vacation spot that has turned into somewhere people check in and never leave. She finds love, but it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to. Sara sees as she goes through the contents of the house that she didn’t really know who her grandmother was, especially as a young woman, and she wants to find the truth. And the truth leads her to someone who has a lot of regrets, but also a lot of potential for healing for them both.

The Hideaway and Sweet Bay, Alabama were like additional characters. They held such prominence and beauty in the book, and I loved seeing the history The Hideaway B&B had through the years–first for Mags, then for Sara with Mags, and finally for Sara without Mags. This southern countryside setting was gorgeously described, and I would really love to visit somewhere like this. It’s rather idyllic–especially to someone who commutes into Chicago every week day for work. Lauren K. Denton did a fantastic job of bringing everything so vividly to life.

I really loved the dimensional side characters in The Hideaway. Mag’s best friend Dot and her husband Bert were very likable and so friendly, while Major was a bit gruff and reluctant to see anything change and Glory was quirky. Sara’s assistant at her shop Bits and Pieces named Allyn was quite fantastic in so many ways. I could read a book where he was a bit more in the forefront easily. And the contractor Crawford was such a nice Southern boy: handsome, polite, and on Sara’s side no matter what.

I give The Hideaway a five out of five. I seriously loved everything about this book. It was emotional, heartfelt, and fun when it needed to be, with interesting characters that I connected with on several levels. Sara’s journey to get to know her grandmother even after she’d passed was one that I understood and sympathized with, having lost three of my four grandparents at a younger age. Sara’s regrets at not making more of an effort to visit Mags in Sweet Bay were palpable, and it’s something that I struggle with myself. There were a lot of funny moments to look out for, certainly one from Mags is the death announcement she wrote for husband. It made me laugh really hard! The pacing was perfect and the writing flow smoothly, and the lazy southern feel was perfect for a book set on the water over the summer. I definitely recommend this to people who love southern romances, coming home stories, or just well-told family stories.

I enjoyed the story it’s a bit sappy but I still liked. I liked Sara and wish I could have met Mags, the eclectic group living at the Hideaway, the author does a good job of describing the area and people, and I could picture them all.

Karthi Masters is a first time narrator who needs some more work, I was also very disappointed the narrator doesn't have a southern accent and the 2 timelines sound exactly the same and I wish she had some characterizations and not use the same voice for everyone. She also needs to learn to control her breath. This one may have been better in print but I was in the car so kept listening.

I would recommend this book in print rather than audio.

3 ½ Stars

I requested this book on a whim hoping for something lighthearted to add to me list that would be too mindless. I got just that! I loved the story and was sucked into both the past and present timelines, which isn't always the case for me with books written in that format. I liked this book!

I half expected this book to be a cheesy story about a girl who inherits her grandmother's house, restores it, falls in love, and everyone lives happily ever after. While these key story elements line up in a similar fashion, the story was well written and unique. Sara faces some unexpected challenges that I didn't see coming, and the story kept me engaged to the very end. I saw myself right in the beautiful house and setting as Sara made her decisions about what to do. A pleasant read.

An easy, quick read with a few surprises but mostly predictable.
Good book for a first one, and I'm looking forward to reading more by her.
And always, thanks to Netgalley for the ARC for my Kindle.

A dual narrative that hit the spot on a spring weekend. Sara returns to a small town in Alabama as her grandmother has passed away and she must return to pick up the pieces of the town that raised her. Mags/Maggie/Margaret is the grandmother that raised her after her parents die with Sara at a young age and she raises her granddaughter, but she didn't reveal herself much to her granddaughter.

I love a dual narrative when the reader knows what is going on in both stories and how they match up from the beginning. The reader knows that Mags is Sara's grandmother, but the mystery lies in the life that Mags had before Sara was alive. There is a quote in the book and at the time of writing this review, I can't find for the life of me, so I will semi quote it - "Isn't it interesting that our grandparents have this whole life before we are born and we don't know to ask about it until we are older and they are possibly gone." I don't have any grandparents alive and haven't for awhile and this book in a sad way reminded me how much I wish they were alive to tell me the stories of their childhood to/thru adulthood.

This book hit me in just the right spot. I loved curling up with it for a day on a rainy spring weekend. I was excited to read that this was her first book and hopefully she has quite a few more up her sleeve!

I'm not sure where to begin with this review. Well I think I must first say I'm still in awe of the authors beautiful writing. The story took me back to a time in my childhood when I was happy. I would visit my granddad on his farm every summer. He built the two story house himself and had the most gorgeous wrap around front porch. As I began to read this book I felt like "The Hideaway " was just like my granddad's house. The memories made there were priceless.

I loved reading about Mags and her spirit that was full of life. To read her story was like walking back in time with my grandmother. The house was always full of wonderful people who became family. Mags had a love for her home and when people came to stay they never wanted to leave. Oh my how the story flowed so smoothly from Mags to Sara.

Sara is shocked to find out that her grandmother has left her home to her. I know it was hard for Sara to go back there but what she discovers there is more than just a house. As Sara decides to renovate the place she uncovers a secret about her grandmother that will change her life. There are wonderful characters that make the story emotional and heartwarming at the same time.

Will Sara be able to renovate the house and fulfill her grandmother's wish? What will Sara decide about her shop back at home? I loved how Sara was able to know her grandmother better as the story unfolded. The author has included discussion questions at the end which will make a great compliment to a book club. I highly recommend this book and encourage book clubs to put this on their list. If you aren't in a BookClub then grab the book , get comfy and allow the author to sweep you away to meet Mags at "The Hideaway."

I received a copy of this book from The Fiction Guild. The review is my own opinion

The Hideaway is a magical tale of loss, discovery, and love. I enjoyed reading about Sara: her business in New Orleans, her dedication, and her passions. She was an extremely likeable and relatable young woman. Although her relationship with Mags was not all it could have been, the plot slowly unravels a remarkable journey that Sara takes in order to find out more about the grandmother she lost, and in turn, about herself. Reading from both Sara’s and Mags’ viewpoint allowed us to better live the events as they occurred and feel present within their lives. This story reveals to the readers how circumstance shapes us to be the people we are and how decisions we make leave an imprint on our hearts. I was hoping that Sara would learn about the underlying reasons she didn’t quite understand Mags and in the end, when all was revealed, I found she held more respect for Mags. With a little bit of sweat and a whole lot of perseverance, Sara was able to discover much more than what she expected and, ultimately found her purpose at the Hideaway. The characters in this story were utterly delightful and the love story between Mags and William was heartwarming. I couldn't help but transport myself to the idyllic town of Sweet Bay and immerse myself in the plot.

Fun fiction! Sara has escaped the small Alabama beach town and is making it big in New Orleans. Other than visiting a few times a year, she doesn't have to deal with her complicated past, including an eccentric grandmother and her perpetual houseguests. Upon the death of her grandmother, that all changes, and Sara's not sure life will ever be the same again. Ladies, this is an excellent summer read!

The Hideaway, a bed and breakfast where a young woman begins a lifetime of love, peace, friendship as well as sadness, difficulties and adversity. This rundown building holds friends who give her support and help her along the ways of life.
This is a wonderful summer beach book or actually any season. It is excellent.

This book really made me want to catch a plane on the first flight to Sweet Bay, Alabama to the enchanted B&B known as the Hideaway full of its amazing story and characters that live inside.

Having said that I really think that this novel would have done better if it had been fully written in the contemporary world instead of adding elements of the past. Maybe this is just me, but I'm not a big fan of novels that tell two stories at the same time that somehow unravel a mysterious past. You don't have to agree. Having said that I did find this book rather enjoyable. I liked the romance between Sara and Crawford although I normally like my romances a little more "there" rather than just thrown into the plot for the sake of calling it a "romance."

But I did enjoy this book and give it three stars.

Granddaughter Sara Jenkins returns to the homestead in Sweet Bay, Alabama following the death of her grandmother, Mags. Sara was raised from about age 10 by Mags after the accidental death of Sara's parents. Sara couldn't wait to escape her eccentric grandmother and found herself as a small business owner in New Orleans as a 20- and 30-something. Mags, though, left the Hideaway homestead to Sara to be restored and either sold or loved.
During the restoration, Sara finds details of her grandmother's life and open a whole new perspective for her on the real story behind the eccentric Mags.
I thought the story was interesting. I was fine with how the chapters jumped around from Mags' story to Sara's story.
Thanks to Thomas Nelson for providing me an ARC for a review in my own words.

The book wasn't bad but it was a bit lackluster. I wish the characters had been as well developed as the scenery.. The description of the house, the beach and the garden were nice but I did not feel any real attachment to the characters.

I love family-history mysteries stories, and this one did not disappoint!