Thank you so much to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Karen Hawkins for my copy of A Cup of Silver Linings in exchange for an honest review. It publishes August 1, 2021.
As soon as I saw this was on deck, I knew I needed to read it! I absolutely adored The Book Charmer, and had heard that a sequel was being written, so dreams really do come true! This book was so much fun, it has a cozy mystery feeling without the murder. I love the magical realism, the community, and especially the Dove sisters!
I think this series is so unique and I am already anxiously awaiting the third installment.
If you're looking for a book that isn't all cutesy, but covers some tough topics, like grief and grudges, look no further. This book doesn't get too ugly, but keeps it real without reveling in negativity, you will absolutely love this and fall in love with this series like me!

Karen Hawkins gives us another lovely small town novel with interesting and eccentric characters - mixed with a little magic.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting A Cup of Silver Linings by Karen Hawkins. Before you start this novel, I highly recommend reading The Book Charmer and the Novella in the series. Then you will have all the background information and you will know who all the characters are.

Karen Hawkins is a wonderful writer who ties in magical realism, hope, love and melancholy masterly. This series is so much more than a small town fiction.
A Cup of Silver Linings splits its point of view over a few characters. We have Kristen who lost her mother, Ellen who lost her daughter and Ava who has a secret.

Ava Dove is one of the seven talented Dove sisters. Ava’s talent is with plants. She is able to read their feelings, know what they need and in return they flourish in her care. Ava has a very success landscaping business and she also makes teas to remedy almost everyone in town. Hawkins weaves a mystery through Ava’s story in a very subtle yet effective way. It all begins when one of her teas is not performing as it should. I love Ava’s character and through her we also get to see bring back characters from the town. Her sister, Sarah, is a favorite!

Ellen is a successful architect and has been estranged from her daughter and granddaughter. The book opens with her perspective at her daughter’s funeral. Kristen is another main character in the book. She is a high schooler and Ellen’s granddaughter. They are both learning about each other, the woman they lost and uncovering a mystery of their own. Their story is a beautifully written tale of grief, healing and finding family.

I felt the deep loss of a mother throughout the book. The other town folk bring comfort and levity to the novel until Ava’s secret is reveled. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to where the next one takes us!

Thank you to #Netgalley and #gallerybooks for an ARC in exchange for a review.
#KarenHawkins #ACupofsilverlinings

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. I loved the first book in the series and could not wait for this one!! It took a bit getting into the story and remembering what happened in the first one but once I got into it it went fast! Loved it.

A Cup of Silver Linings is a lovely book. Once I started reading I could not stop until I finished it. Karen Hawkins has created a wonderful small town community full of good people and quirky characters. For those of you lucky enough to have read her previous novel, The Book Charmer, we follow the lives of many of the same characters. I can not wait for the next book in the series.

A cozy read in my favorite genre: “books that are about nothing, but also everything.”

The intertwined stories of sister, daughters, grandmothers, friends and romantic interests transport you to the town of Dove Pond and immerse you in the lives of a delightful group of characters. Magic, love, grief and family dynamics all weave together, telling a thoroughly human story of how to survive all that life can throw at you. This will make a great summer read.

Dove Pond certainly has mystical properties whether it be Sarah with books or Ava with tea but most importantly it emphasizes the importance of love and family. I was so glad that Ellen fostered relationships with Kristen and Julie and realized how listening is so important. This book certainly has multiple elements and requires the reader to believe.

A Cup of Silver Linings by Karen Hawkins
This book starts out with a dedication page. Story starts with Ellen, the grandmother.
She has returned to Dove Pond and is attending her daughter's funeral. She is there to tend to the care of her granddaughter Kristen, a high school teen. Her mother had run away when she was a teen and had Kristen but never returned...she's now dead, Julie.
Each chapter follows Ellen, Ava who runs the tea room and her sister Sarah-there are many other Dove Sisters that make brief appearances in this story.
Kristen also gets her chapters and I like how we get to hear her point of view. She knows her whole world is about to be turned upside down, she will be forced to go live with her grandmother in another town.
She has two very close friends that have her back. She figures the only way to be able to stay is to find her real father. She gives Ellen some tea before bed and she hopes to search the house for more clues from her mother as to who her father is.
They search through year books and come up with three clues as to who it could be. Ava is having her own problems with her sister and a big secret that comes to light.
She never meant for her tea concoctions to turn out as they did. Lots of Magic.
Love that there are many different generations of people involved and how they are all connected, over time you will learn all about them. Book excerpt from next in the series, also Q&A is included for discussion questions.
Received this review copy from Gallery Books via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

When your mother dies from cancer and you are still a teenager how do you survive. A grandmother you don't know , A town with the dove sisters and their therapeutic teas. I absolutely loved the writing, connections of characters, and how everyone marches to their own drummer. Can't wait to read the first one. Thank you herbalist for the opportunity to read this book!

I'm a pretty consistent 2 or 3 days per book reader. I loved The Book Charmer so obviously I was stoked to get this one as an early release.

The story was good. The characters were good. It was just so slow. It took me the better part of 2 weeks to get through this one.

Second book in the Dove Pond series, Ava is trying to get her tearoom ready to open as well as create her special blend of teas. Julie, Ava’s friend has just died and her teenage daughter Kristen is trying to come to grips with her loss. But the grandmother she’s never known has come to town to be her guardian and move her away from Dove Pond. To add more to Ava’s plate, three special teas shes created for customers have backfired as they’re feeling strange effects, and a secret Ava has long kept from her sister Sarah is about to be exposed.
I love the magical traits the Dove sisters possess, and the people in this town. The book has a lot of characters in it with backstories presented that I kept getting the feeling I should know about, but there’s only been 1 other Dove Pond novel along with a short story that I know about and read so it was a little disconcerting at times, and felt unfinished or hanging out there. When I looked up other Karen Hawkins books I couldn’t find the source of some of the people she present, so hopefully their stories will be in future books.
All in all a pleasant read and the more magic the better.

With having read the first in the Dove Pond series... I fell in love with Karen Hawkins writing.

A Cup of Silver Linings is nothing short of Hawkins talent again. I loved this sweet tale and loved the touch of magic in this again. This was the perfect light escape read that I needed.

This story is about the Dove sister Ava who has a heart and magic touch for plants. She is planning on opening a tea room. She uses her plants to make special teas for everyone in the town. Unfortunately, something goes wrong with one of her plants and she can't make her teas.

This story was about growth with Ava, Kristen, and Ellen. Kristen is trying to move forward from the death of her mother Julie who died from cancer and her grandmother Ellen has come to Dove Pond to take Kristen away from the town.

This was such an sweet and inspiring read to the series. I am looking forward to the next in the series. I would say it's ok to read this as a standalone but it's always good to get background from the first book :).

4/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Pub date: 7/6/21
Published to GR: 2/20/21

This is the second Dove Pond book I've read, and I'm thoroughly intrigued and fascinated by the family. (Note - you don't not have to have read the first to follow the second; it works as a stand-alone) In this book, we meet Kristen, who has just lost her mother and is now living with her estranged grandmother. She is on the search to find her father, and he is much closer than she would have ever guessed! We also follow Ava, whose magical gift comes in the form of teas, through her ups and downs of attending to the town. I look forward to seeing what comes next in the saga of the seven sisters!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A heartfelt story which I have enjoyed that includes a splash of magic.

A Cup of Silver Linings is the second book in the Dove Pond series. Ava Dove is trying to get things in order to open her new tearoom as part of the Ava Dove Landscaping and Specialty Teas business. But the death of a friend and family secrets are not helping things along. This is a wonderful book of family, forgiveness, and friendship with a touch of magic. I did not want to put this book down. I love the Dove Pond books and look forward to the next book in this series. Thanks to the author Karen Hawkins, publisher Gallery Books, and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for a honest review.

Ellen is mourning her daughter Julie. Julie died of cancer and has a daughter kristen. She has a beautiful funeral. I liked the characters descriptions and dialogue.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's copy from NetGalley.

I went to start to read this book, and realized it was the second in a series. So I found the other book and read it first (of which I'm glad I did, it was great!). You could probably get away with reading this one as a standalone, but you'll understand the characters a lot better if you read the first one ahead of time.

This book is about Ava, a Dove sister who is good with plants. And by extension, good at making teas. Except when something happens to her tea and she's not sure what. She's also got a pretty big secret she's hiding, and that she can tell is coming back to haunt her. But she's not the only one with problems; her helper at her business has just lost her mother, and her domineering grandmother thinks she knows what is best, even if everyone else disagrees.

This book is all about character growth. Ava goes through it, Ellen goes through it (she's the grandmother), Kristen's a pretty solid character already but she learns some compromise. Most of the book centers around these three, but the side characters are just as lively as ever and add variety to the book.

Honestly, this book had enough of a plot with Kristen; I thought the added bits about Ava's difficulties were almost unnecessary. It might be setting it up for a third book, but really, I would have enjoyed the book just as much without it. It still had the nice magical realism incorporated into the teas. I especially liked how moods and such could have an impact in the brewing. But the book also still had my pet peeve of using modern pop culture references. I know I've said it before, but it irks me because it's dependent upon a reader's likes or dislikes, and how the reference stands the test of time, for this book to also stand the test of time. It just takes me out of that magical world and into the regular for a moment. A small complaint, but still one that jars me as I'm reading.

This was a solid 2nd book though and I very much look forward to the rest; there are seven Dove sisters after all.

Review by M. Reynard 2021

I have mixed feelings about this book, the second in the Dove Pond series. (Please note: I have not read the first offering, “The Book Charmer,” featuring Sarah, the town librarian.) I had difficulty embracing Sarah’s gift or talent and this detracted from my overall enjoyment of an otherwise charming storyline.

The primary protagonist is Ava, the sixth of seven sisters in the Pond family. I surmise from the background information given that the family is known for having a variety of paranormal gifts or talents. Ava has an ability to sense/communicate with plants and runs a successful landscaping business, as well providing specialty teas to the local residents. Much of the book focuses on her efforts to remodel a storefront to open a tea room, which is severely challenged when several of her customized teas produce unsettling side effects with clients. Added to this dilemma, a long-held secret is revealed that threatens her reputation in the town as well as her relationship with her sister, Sarah.

A major subplot includes a teenage girl, Kristen, who has just lost her mother to breast cancer and her estranged grandmother determined to uproot her granddaughter from her home and whisk her off to “a better life” in a large city. Kristen has never known her father and is determined to uncover his identity in an effort to remain in Dove Pond with her friends.

The author does an admirable job in examining the complexities of family relationships and the healing of rifts caused by stubbornness and miscommunication. The characters are well-developed and their interpersonal dynamics are believable and engaging.

I usually enjoy books that have an element of paranormal/magical/mystical elements, and I realize that these stories require a certain degree of suspending “reality” to be appreciated. That said, I could relate to Ava’s gifts, but found Sarah’s ability to talk to books stretched things a bit too far. Having an intuitive ability to match books with readers – sure. Having actual conversations with books that make demands on her was a bit much.

My thanks to the author, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing a digital ARC in exchange for an independent, honest review.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

I think I actually enjoyed A CUP OF SILVER LINGINGS even more than THE BOOK CHARMER, and that's saying a lot. Dove Pond is a wonderful place to visit and a hard place to leave. I especially enjoyed the exploration of Kristen's relationship with Ellen. Hawkins does a great job creating a sense of place and I can hardly wait to read the next novel set in Dove Pond!

This was a sweet read and I like the touch of magic (it reminds me a bit of books by [author:Sarah Addison Allen|566874]). I wanted some romance between Ava and Dylan though, or at least some sort of acknowledgement of their interest in each other. I'm looking forward to the next one with Ella, but I'm getting impatient for Sarah and Blake's book!

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.