I really wanted to love this book but despite there being nothing particularly wring with the plot, characters, and plot, I wasn't exactly thrilled. Set in my home state, I thought I'd feel a good connection with this novel, it was more like sutting on the porch going over the same small town gossip I'm use to daily. I can certainly see others enjoying this book, however.

K.M. Jackson has given us the first book in her new Sugar Lake series. I think your going to like it and, like me, be waiting on book # 2. I'd never read any of Ms Jackson's work and I'm delighted I took a chance. I was drawn in by the second chances plot. Don't we all have that one person we'd like to have a do-over with?

Olivia "liv" Gale is living the good life. She has an interesting corporate job that pays well, a New York apartment she can afford and a hot boyfriend. She and Damon have been together for 9 months and he's keeping clothes in her closet. That's a good sign. Wait for it... In one day she's restructured (fired) from her job, how's she going to pay the rent, and Damon turns out to be a dog with fleas. While Liv is at work, getting fired, Damon trashes her bedroom gathering up his stuff, leaves the mess but takes her new flat screen tv. To make this the day from hell her Fathers retirement party is that night and she has to act like it's all ok. Just shoot me now.

The retirement party turns out to be a salvation for Liv. Her Aunt in Sugar Lake, Georgia has broken her hip and needs help at the family business, Goode & Sweet Pie Shop. Liv volunteers, she can bake, and sister Drea can run customer service. The sibling dynamics will be familiar to anyone with a sibling (stop looking at me!) The shop is a little run down and the sisters set about updating the interior and adding new items to the menu. On the way into town the ladies had a good reminiscence about their childhood visits and how much the town has changed.

A small kitchen fire brings the fire department and their chief to the pie shop. The chief turns out to be Clayton Morris. He's her young love, the first crush, the first everything. He freaked out, left town, knocked up his new gf & moved to the west coast, all without 1 word to Liv. That's goodbye in anyone's book. When their eyes meet in the pie shop it's a wonder they didn't start another fire. Clayton's a single dad now & moved back home to Mom. He's full of regret, Liv is full of anger. I'm going to stop here and let you take the journey to love, again, with Liv. It's good.

As always, this is a romance and must have a happy ending. I'm thrilled to know another book is on it's way. It has such possibility. Don't leave me hanging too long, please? Receiving a free book ARC is a true privilege and one I certainly enjoy. Being able to provide my opinion is a pleasure and doesn't cost a thing. Happy reading.

As Good as the First Time was such a good read! I was excited and happy to see that it is the beginning of a series by this author.

This book has everything I enjoy, a small town, family, a history, a small business and lots of great character development. Oh and food. Did I mention food? This book will make you hungry because so much of what is mentioned sounds amazing!

And....there are firefighters. Oh yes, food, firefighters and family drama. How in the world can you want more than that?

This is my first book by K.M. Jackson, but it most definitely will not be the last. If you love ANY of the above, this is your book. Believe me.

I requested an ARC and thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for making a copy available to me. My thoughts and opinions are my own and freely given.

As Good as the First Time
K.M. Jackson


K.M. Jackson’s latest romance, As Good as the First Time, features a driven, practical heroine conquering past hurts when she returns to the small town where she had her young heart broken. Naturally, the boy who left her among the walking wounded has grown into a handsome, heroic single dad and wouldn’t you know it, he’s just recently moved back to the same small town our heroine is about to visit.

Olivia (Liv) Gale has had a heck of a day. First, she got ‘restructured’ out of a job. Then, hoping for some loving comfort from her boyfriend she returns instead to an apartment emptied of his clothes – and her television. Taking a deep breath, she loads up her signature pies and heads to her father’s retirement party, determined to keep it together and not rain on her daddy’s parade. The pies are a huge success but her reunion with her family is not. She bickers with her sister Drea incessantly and this event is no exception. The two women begin snarking at each other almost immediately and keep at it for most of the evening. The only lull is when the sisters learn their parents are thinking of postponing/cancelling their dream vacation in order to help out at the Goode’N Sweet, the family bakery in Sugar Lake, Georgia. It seems Aunt Joyce, who runs the establishment, has broken her hip and could use some help. Rather than let their parents cancel their trip, Drea and Liv determine to go in their stead.

The journey from New York to Georgia goes fine, but they arrive to find the bakery surrounded by firemen. While the oven fire is nothing to be concerned with, Fire Chief Clayton Morris is very much a problem for Liv. He’s the reason she stopped spending summers in Sugar Lake. They’d been hot and heavy for a whole season when he’d up and left her without so much as a goodbye. Seeing him again -ever- had never been in Liv’s carefully executed life plan.

Clayton knows he owes Liv an explanation for how poorly he treated her after their last date all those summers ago. He just never thought he’d have the chance to tell her in person how much she meant to him and why he felt he had to give her up. Seeing her again stirs all the feelings he’s kept repressed for years but it’s clear that she wants to keep their encounters professional, polite and pithy. Clayton wants none of that; he knows if he doesn’t have the courage to speak this time, he’ll never have a shot again. Now if he can just get her to listen. . .

While I found the opening chapters a bit difficult because they involved a lot of bickering – between Liv and Drea, Joyce and her sister, another aunt and her children – the text fortunately smooths out and the author seems to hit her stride and find her voice. As a result, fans of small-town romance will find a lot to love in this story. Quirky relatives, the charm of country living, the healing balm of familial relationships, the folksy wisdom of the locals – all the standard tropes make an appearance here.

The bulk of the story is devoted to setting up the needed conversation between Liv and Clayton. What the reader knows almost from the start is that Liv has never been able to trust a man since Clayton broke her heart. Initially I rolled my eyes at this, but when I learned the details surrounding the break-up, I found myself a bit more sympathetic to Liv’s point of view. Clayton’s timing was bad, his excuses flimsy, and his behavior during that time was immature. As an adult, he seems aware of his past mistakes, but he still seems to struggle with immaturity. It is Liv who speaks to him about the effect any possible relationship they form might have upon his daughter, and who pushes him to look beyond the trite response of, “She’ll be happy if I’m happy.” This attitude highlights a problem in both the relationship they develop during the course of this book and the one they had in the past: Liv tended to think through issues while Clayton emoted his way through them. I couldn’t help but wonder if this wouldn’t prove to be a serious obstacle as they went forward.

The characters also seem to have a hard time communicating, mainly because neither of them really wants to. Both of them suffer from some insecurities which keep them bracing themselves for the next big letdown; fearing conversations because they fear those discussions will be focused on their shortcomings as people. They had issues in their past which explained this – his divorce, her recent job loss and numerous failed relationships – but I wasn’t sure that being together would magically cure these previous pains. Overall, I liked the idea of Liv and Clayton as a couple, but felt that the problems that pulled them apart as teens remained with them as adults. The text didn’t show us any growth in that area apart from the magical healing of their reunion love, which I struggled to accept. I do understand that’s par for the course in many a romance novel, though, so didn’t grade down for it. Let’s just say it’s a personal pet peeve I feel obligated to point out to others.

The tale keeps its primary focus on the romance but also involves a small mystery, which is handled very well, playing out in the background and fitting smoothly into the overall plot of the narrative. It gives us some nice relationship rebuilding between the two sisters, too, and teases some possible career changes for them in the future.

As Good as the First Time perfectly executes many standard romance tropes, making it an entertaining read that doesn’t offer anything new but delivers on plenty of beloved standards. If you’re a fan of small-town reunion romance, this will probably be a perfect fit for you.

As Good as the First Time by K.M. Jackson is the first book in the new contemporary romance Sugar Lake series. This opener of the small town romance series has the big city girl returning to the small town for a second chance with her old sweetheart.

Olivia Gale had been working at a good job in New York and had a boyfriend she thought things were going well with until in the course of one day she loses both. A victim of downsizing she doesn’t even get the chance to get the news out before her boyfriend ends things abruptly.

However, right after Olivia gets a day full of bad news the family gets a phone call from Sugar Lake where her aunt needs help running the Goode N’ Sweet bakery after an accident. Olivia volunteers to go help out but is joined by her sister as the pair heads to Sugar Lake where Olivia runs into Clayton Morris who had left Olivia broken hearted years ago.

Now normally I’m all about the small town romances but for some reason this one didn’t grab me the way I’d like. Perhaps it was starting with the abrupt relationship ending which always makes me question why a character jumps from one relationship to another or perhaps it was the constant bickering between the sisters and lots of other small town drama but I never really felt the romance shined in this story or connected to the characters very well. It’s not a bad book but I think it tried a bit too hard to cover a lot of often used tropes and just didn’t grab the emotion side of a story.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

What a great story of hope, following your heart, and reinventing yourself to lead to happiness. Who would have thought that things might just work out for Olivia Gale, especially when she is fired and her boyfriend leaves her all in the same day. I like how her character does not sit around moping over what she has lost but sets out for Sugar Lake, Georgia to help her Aunt Joyce in her bakery shop. I enjoyed this story so much, especially the ending! I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.

As Good as the First Time plays to many of KM Jackson's strengths - family relationships, a strong sense of place, and characters who are good at their jobs. It does, however, suffer from first book in series syndrome, with a slow beginning due to a large cast of characters and a somewhat complicated setup.
We meet the hero at around 20% into the book, which is when the book picks up.
Overall, if you like second chance romances and reading about families, I think this is a good book for you. Personally, I'm looking forward to the second, which will hopefully get off to a quicker start and still retain the things I liked about this one.

This is a sweet second chance romance. Liv goes back to Sugar Lake to help her Aunt run the bakery. She runs into her teenage sweetheart who left and broke her heart. Liv holds a lot against Clayton. Being back in Sugar Lake after 12 years brings back a lot of memories for Liv. Most all of them are good except the last summer there. Can Liv and Clayton overcome the past and move on in the future and will Liv finally realize what her true calling is. It takes the whole book to find out these answers.



*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

As Good as the First Time by K.M. Jackson
Sugar Lake #1

Oliva Gale has just finished baking pies for her father’s retirement party, sent her lover off to work and headed out the door for her own job when the story begins. By the end of the day she has said goodbye to more than one thing she had taken for granted and is saddled with a sister she bickers with constantly as she heads to Sugar Lake to help her aunt with the family bakery. She will meet up with her first love, spend time with family and be faced with big decisions before the books ends.

This is a new-to-me author and I am on the fence because I had trouble relating to the characters and found the plot somewhat predictable. Perhaps there wasn’t enough of the backstory or time in the second chance segment for me to see why Olivia and Clayton would be drawn to one another? I am not sure if it was that or the fact that I didn’t know enough about Olivia’s job in New York to see why she would prefer small town life as a baker over living in the city or just what it was that had me feeling just okay at the end of the story. I am wondering which of the characters mentioned in the story will have stories of their own: Liv’s sister, Clayton’s brother, some of the cousins or perhaps others who have not been introduced.

Did I love the story? No
Did the story flow? Yes
Would I read another book in this series? I think so

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

Really enjoyed this one. It's a small town second chance romance with a spunky baker and a gorgeous firefighter single dad. So what's not to love? Liv and Clay are reunited when Olivia returns to Sugar Lake to help in the family bakery. The story is very sweet and while perhaps not terribly unique the characters, the big extended family, and the small town make it fresh and fun. The writing is excellent with an easy flow to the story. It's a feel good story that I think everyone will enjoy. I definitely recommend it.

Olivia has lost her job, television screen and boyfriend all in one day. So when the opportunity to go help her Aunt Joyce in Sugar Lake she takes the leap. But when she arrives there is a fire at the pie shop that her aunt ownes, and a familiar voice in the kitchen. Clayton is the fire chief and Olivia's first love. Clayton is a single dad who has come home to help his mother. This was a sweet book. I love second chance romances.

K.M Jackson is a new author to me and after reading As Good as the First Time I have to wonder why I haven’t come across her before now. If you love sweet small southern town romances you will love this story which is the first book in the aptly named Sugar Lake Series.
Olivia Gale’s life has gone into free fall she has lost her job and her live in boyfriend all on the same date so when she finds out her aunt in Sugar Lake has had a fall and needs someone to run her Goode N’ Sweet Bakery until she gets back on her feet it seems like fate has stepped in. Olivia loves to bake so has no hesitation in offering to help what she doesn’t expect is to meet local firefighter and single dad Clayton Morris who broke her heart 10 years before. Clayton is also trying fix his past mistakes and can’t believe Olivia is back in Sugar Lake will their reunion be a happy one .......
Second chance/ small town romance with the added attraction of a single dad what more could you ask for. Great start to a new series

I gave this one 🥧🥧🥧🥧 aunt Joyce pies!!!!

Who doesn’t love a small-town story with sweet treat baking? In “As Good As The First Time” we travel to the small town of Sugar Lake where we enjoy family baked secrets, a second chance romance, mysterious supporting characters and suspense…. In every small town there is a spirit of hospitality that families share, but when it comes to their children it is common to always want better for them. Clayton and Olivia just wanted to be sweethearts and their love grew more and more with each summer visit, until one visit shattered everything without an explanation.

Olivia Gale tries to live her life doing the right thing and when her big city career and current relationship falls apart, she is more than ready for a redo. So, when the family’s bakery hit a rough spot, she welcomes the opportunity to have the change of scenery and cultivate her baking abilities, but not the distraction. Clayton Morris tries to put his life back on track after his pass mistakes, he has his plate full as the town’s fire chief, single dad and looking out for his mom and brother. His contentment is derailed when he walks into Goode ‘N Sweet and unexpectedly puts eyes on Olivia and old feelings come flooding back. Now they are forced to deal with their past and rekindle sparks that can’t be ignored.

I enjoyed this small-town romance and the author penned some strong supporting characters that made this story complete. Aunt Joyce made you feel right at home with her strong-willed, witty and loving personality. Now Caleb Morris, the recluse brother spotlighted this one with his mysterious personality and I REALLY HOPE THAT HE HAS A STORY IN OUR FUTURE!!!

Really enjoyed this sweet second chance at love romance. Loved the food aspect of it as well! Wish I could have everything Aunt Joyce and Liv baked. Maybe i can have a tiny bit if it cuz there's a recipe at the back of the book! :)

I love how Clay and Liv got to know each other again. Even with the past hovering over them they were able to talk it out. As with most books I read, I love when the MC have people in their lives who they can go to for support. Family is most present in this book in various forms. Family you can't stand sometimes, bickering siblings but who love each other. Family who believe in you when you're not so sure yourself. Both Clay and Liv have this. Especially nosy family! lol.

This book is quite low and the heat level, with very few kisses but I really enjoyed these two just being in each others' space again.

Now I love when we get little breadcrumbs and clues about the next couple in a series so i'm *eyes emoji* at Clay's bro, Caleb and Liv's cousin Rena. We'll seeee if i'm right.

I enjoyed this and am looking forward to what's next in Sugar Lake :)

I’m a bit tired of books that start out with the heroine losing her job and worthless boyfriend all on the same day. This book begins that way and then adds in that Olivia volunteers to leave New York City to go help her aunt in a small Georgia town run her bakery. So we have a big city girl going to small town where she’ll meet her first love who abandoned her back when she was 18. There are a lot of common romance tropes wrapped up in that plot summary. What is different is the general cattiness from just about every female character in the book. Olivia constantly fights with her younger sister. Every woman in the Georgia town has a bless-her-heart thing going on with just about every other woman. It gets a bit tiring to read all the bickering and cattiness. And Olivia just doesn’t seem all that lovable.

When she meets up with Clayton, her past love, who is now a single father and hot fireman, he seems to feel the same, but there is never any reason why he should love this Olivia other than the love he had for her 12 years ago and the guilt he feels over how he treated her. She’s rude to him in just about every encounter and doesn’t seem all that great when she’s leaves off being rude to pretend to be nice to people.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

As Good As The First Time was definitely one rollercoaster of a ride. Lots of ups and downs, lots of laughs and sad situations, many of them bringing you into deep thoughs.
The writing was amazing, keeping you interested the whole time, never getting bored.

Promises have been told, mistakes have been done and teenage love never forgotten. 12 years later arising old feelings coming to the surface although sans wanting to make the same mistakes twice, all around wrapped in sweet pies and delicious honey biscuits.
Is it possible to fall in love for the same person again or is it that the heart never has stopped to beat for the other one at all? That's the question with capital B.

I loved every second of this beautiful story.

An engaging and entertaining romance. An interesting beginning and I am looking forward to reading the stories of the other characters.

"As Good as the First Time" by K.M. Jackson
I liked this sweet/clean contemporary romance story. I am not sure why but I never really connected with any of the characters.. I never really felt their emotions. I am sure it was just me. I was gifted an ARC of this story by the publisher.

K.M. Jackson’s latest romance, As Good as the First Time, features a driven, practical heroine conquering past hurts when she returns to the small town where she had her young heart broken. Naturally, the boy who left her among the walking wounded has grown into a handsome, heroic single dad and wouldn’t you know it, he’s just recently moved back to the same small town our heroine is about to visit.

Olivia (Liv) Gale has had a heck of a day. First, she got ‘restructured’ out of a job. Then, hoping for some loving comfort from her boyfriend she returns instead to an apartment emptied of his clothes – and her television. Taking a deep breath, she loads up her signature pies and heads to her father’s retirement party, determined to keep it together and not rain on her daddy’s parade. The pies are a huge success but her reunion with her family is not. She bickers with her sister Drea incessantly and this event is no exception.  The two women begin snarking at each other almost immediately and keep at it for most of the evening. The only lull is when the sisters learn their parents are thinking of postponing/cancelling their dream vacation in order to help out at the Goode’N Sweet, the family bakery in Sugar Lake, Georgia. It seems Aunt Joyce, who runs the establishment, has broken her hip and could use some help. Rather than let their parents cancel their trip, Drea and Liv determine to go in their stead.

The journey from New York to Georgia goes fine, but they arrive to find the bakery surrounded by firemen. While the oven fire is nothing to be concerned with, Fire Chief Clayton Morris is very much a problem for Liv. He’s the reason she stopped spending summers in Sugar Lake. They’d been hot and heavy for a whole season when he’d up and left her without so much as a goodbye. Seeing him again -ever- had never been in Liv’s carefully executed life plan.

Clayton knows he owes Liv an explanation for how poorly he treated her after their last date all those summers ago. He just never thought he’d have the chance to tell her in person how much she meant to him and why he felt he had to give her up. Seeing her again stirs all the feelings he’s kept repressed for years but it’s clear that she wants to keep their encounters professional, polite and pithy. Clayton wants none of that; he knows if he doesn’t have the courage to speak this time, he’ll never have a shot again. Now if he can just get her to listen. . .

While I found the opening chapters a bit difficult because they involved a lot of bickering – between Liv and Drea, Joyce and her sister, another aunt and her children - the text fortunately smooths out and the author seems to hit her stride and find her voice. As a result, fans of small-town romance will find a lot to love in this story. Quirky relatives, the charm of country living, the healing balm of familial relationships, the folksy wisdom of the locals – all the standard tropes make an appearance here.

The bulk of the story is devoted to setting up the needed conversation between Liv and Clayton. What the reader knows almost from the start is that Liv has never been able to trust a man since Clayton broke her heart. Initially I rolled my eyes at this, but when I learned the details surrounding the break-up, I found myself a bit more sympathetic to Liv’s point of view. Clayton’s timing was bad, his excuses flimsy, and his behavior during that time was immature. As an adult, he seems aware of his past mistakes, but he still seems to struggle with immaturity. It is Liv who speaks to him about the effect any possible relationship they form might have upon his daughter, and who pushes him to look beyond the trite response of, “She’ll be happy if I’m happy.”  This attitude highlights a problem in both the relationship they develop during the course of this book and the one they had in the past: Liv tended to think through issues while Clayton emoted his way through them. I couldn’t help but wonder if this wouldn’t prove to be a serious obstacle as they went forward.

The characters also seem to have a hard time communicating, mainly because neither of them really wants to. Both of them suffer from some insecurities which keep them bracing themselves for the next big letdown; fearing conversations because they fear those discussions will be focused on their shortcomings as people. They had issues in their past which explained this – his divorce, her recent job loss and numerous failed relationships – but I wasn’t sure that being together would magically cure these previous pains. Overall, I liked the idea of Liv and Clayton as a couple, but felt that the problems that pulled them apart as teens remained with them as adults. The text didn’t show us any growth in that area apart from the magical healing of their reunion love, which I struggled to accept.  I do understand that’s par for the course in many a romance novel, though, so didn’t grade down for it. Let’s just say it’s a personal pet peeve I feel obligated to point out to others.

The tale keeps its primary focus on the romance but also involves a small mystery, which is handled very well, playing out in the background and fitting smoothly into the overall plot of the narrative. It gives us some nice relationship rebuilding between the two sisters, too, and teases some possible career changes for them in the future.

As Good as the First Time perfectly executes many standard romance tropes, making it an entertaining read that doesn’t offer anything new but delivers on plenty of beloved standards. If you’re a fan of small-town reunion romance, this will probably be a perfect fit for you.

Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo

This book has a very well developed story. I liked the characters and the story held my interest. I really think it was a very good start to a new series. This author was new to me and I look forward to the next book in the Sugar Lake series. Thanks to netgalley for allowing me to read the arc of this book free in exchange for this honest review.