The Inn on Sweetbriar Lane by Jeannie Chin
Source: NetGalley and Forever
Rating: 4½/5 stars

The Bottom Line: June Wu is one of my favorite character types, the girl who can’t stay out of her own way in order to make some headway in her life. June and her family are up to their butts in debt, but June refuses to ask for help, she simply waits for a solution to fall into her lap. As Fate would have it, the solution to June’s problems is also the greatest pain in her butt.

Clay Hawthorne has a single-minded focus that has him working all hours of the day and night. He couldn’t care less that his hammering and power tool activities are driving away the customers from June’s bed and breakfast. Despite the best neighborly efforts of the lady across the street, Clay is having none of the fitting in and helping others. He’s going to build his little bar and to hell with everyone else! Except, life in a small town is all about fitting in and helping your neighbors and if Clay wants to bring his bar into reality, he’s going to need the help of the pest across the street.

As it turns out, June and Clay are a power couple who both refuse to acknowledge such idiocies. For each to get what they respectively want there is going to have to be cooperation and a little flexibility. Oh, and there should also be some mind-blowing sex! There should definitely be that last bit. Oh, and there should also be a gang of scraggly bikers hell-bent on helping their friend 😊 From one extreme to the next, June and Clay begin to make a path that will not only see Clay’s dream come true, but increase business for the entire town, June’s B&B included.

In all, I really enjoyed this true enemies to friends to lover’s romance. Y’all know my love of small-town reads and that certainly factored into my liking of this story. However, the greatest draw would have to be June and Clay and their ridiculous games, shenanigans, and refusal to admit the obvious. I found a load of humor in this read and that always ups the star rating for me.

I did not know what to expect when I first started reading the story. It ended up being a really fun book! The character development is awesome and I felt like I was in the story along with them! A good read, easy to follow, you will enjoy it!

I loved this sweet Hallmark/Lifetime movie-esque tale, but this one had a much better backstory and character development than most. I found the characters to be more dynamic and interesting, and I was glued to this book! Cute and easy read! Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Talk about a GREAT little book! I loved this one from front to back & cannot wait to see what else happened in this little town!

I loved the dual POV, the characters, & the story of saving the town 🥰 this one had so many of my favourite things! Small town, & enemies to lovers…sign me up! Clay was a great grumpy character, and i loved getting to know him as well as his fun loving friends. And June was interesting to say the least! I loved her loyalty to her family, but I didn't like seeing her work herself so much! I was so happy watching both characters grow individually and together.

This heartwarming story also touched on tougher topics, & I loved how realistic & relatable it was 💕 When a romance book is able to add such important topics into the everyday lives of its characters, it really hooks me! And this one did exactly that!

Such a strong start to a series. I love my small towns to be a but rough around the edges - makes it more real! Also, this one brings the steam, which was a nice surprise. Looking forward to more from this author.

The cover made me think this book would be more on the "sweet" than the "steamy" side of romance and I almost passed it up because of that. What a mistake that would've been because there was A LOT to love about this book. June was a strong, independent heroine trying to do her best for her family's inn after some unexpected bills. Clay was her nemesis neighbor, opening a bar she felt would impact her guests' experience. I wouldn't call it quite enemies to lovers, but it definitely had some vibes.

Now I don't know about you, but I love watching a grumpy, closed-off hero start to open up. The way it happened with Clay hit all the right notes for me. Even with the antagonistic bits between them in the beginning, I was all in on June and Clay from the start. They both needed to learn to let go to find something together and I was all about that journey. I got a few chuckles, some unexpected steam and plenty of feels out of this one.

From the small-town setting to the grumpy hero and the independent heroine to the internet star cat, I was here for every bit of this book. I'm already excited about visiting Blue Cedar Falls whenever the next book is released.

This is a super cute small town with some southern twists in NC. We get busybodies getting their noses in things, June is running her families inn, the highway moved so less tourist, upcoming festive, Clay is back from Afghanistan and going to open a bar in honor of this friend - Bug, we also have family drama, Clay and June trying to figure out life and how they fit into each other lives. We also get some steamy but close door-is.

Overall, I can't wait for more of this series!!

4 stars
2.3 steam

Thanks forever for a copy of this book

The Inn on Sweetbriar Lane is a sweet enemies-to-lovers tale with a slight amount of steam.

Clay Hawthorne is a veteran who fought over in Afghanistan. He is in town to build Bug's Bar, the dream of his friend, Bug, who died overseas but dreamed of building a bar in his hometown. Clay doesn't know anything about Blue Cedar Falls outside of what Bug told him and he isn't inclined to learn more. June Wu owns the local inn across the street from the building Clay is refinishing. When Clay's loud construction interrupts visits at the inn causing June to refund patrons, she takes it into her own hands to help Clay. Clay is reluctant to trust let alone accept help from June, but when it becomes apparent he'll need help to get the bar up and running he accepts. Their attraction is almost instantaneous but they'll need to get through their rough first encounter before they can act on it.

I'm hoping this will be the first of a series with these characters. Jeannie Chin sets up what couples could be a part of the future of this series. The characters were very loveable even when they appeared gruff. I do think this novel was a little longer than it needed to be but I forgave it because it's *fingers crossed* the start of a series. As we are in the middle of the Fall, this novel is perfect for seasonal reading or readers who love small town romances. I can't wait until I get the chance to visit Blue Cedar Falls again.

Trigger warnings: Grief, death of a friend, Cancer

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for a copy of The Inn on Sweetbriar Lane in exchange for my honest review.

When I think of women's literary fiction, I think of books just like this one, that gives all the feels and can satisfies just about every reader's heart. This is a perfect books to snuggle up with on any day.

When Christina Lauren suggests a book, you read it immediately! Thank you Forever for an early copy of this! I so enjoyed this one & highly recommend checking it out.

This small town romance has more dimension than a lot of others I have read. For starters, the main character comes from a Chinese American family, Her best friend is LGBTQ+ and struggling with coming out to her family ((though I am not quite sure how she has managed to hide it, ina town this small!). Katie runs the family's inn on main street, since her mother suffered from a stroke and the hospital bills keep coming. Business is lighter than usual due to a highway that has diverted tourists from their little town.

Clay is a veteran who has recently separated from the military, and lost his best friend overseas in battle. Clay has come to town with the intention of fulfilling his friend's dream of opening a bar on mainstreet, Bug's bar. The problem is that it doesn't fit with the image the town has for mainstreet, and there are a lot of barriers to opening. June offers to help in an effort to helpmcraft the type of establishment that will pull tourists in to her hotel, and not repel them. Of course, the main characters have a spark between them and have a hard time ignoring it.

This book is different, and the character development is different from other books I have read; but, different in a good way. The author brings a new voice into small town romance, and having grown up in a small town as someone that did not have family there for generations (when I graduated high school, we were still a "newer family" despite the fact I was born and raised there), I appreciate that not all people in a small town think alike, look alike, and act the same.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In THE INN ON SWEETBRIAR LANE, debut author Jeannie Chin combines small town coziness with an opposites attract love story to craft a memorable romance debut.

A sweet read. The romance at least to me moved at the right pace for the book. Though there were parts that were predictable but I still enjoyed it.

The Inn on Sweetbriar Lane is a darling start to a new Blue Cedar Falls series from Jeannie Chin and I believe it may be her debut novel. It follows Clay, an army Vet, who comes to Blue Cedar Falls to build the bar his fallen friend dreamed of building and June whose family owns the inn across the street from where Clay plans to build the bar. The pair but heads from the start but soon find themselves falling for each other. As with all small town romancers, there is a wonderful cast of side characters that bring Blue Cedar Falls to live and add to the entertainment.
I really liked both Clay and June. I loved their enemies to lovers dynamic. I also liked that the entire book wasn’t them getting together because I got to enjoy them growing together as a couple. I liked that they both grew individually as well as within their relationship. They felt very real and nothing about their relationship felt forced.
This book didn’t shy away from some difficult subjects. June’s family is struggling financially due to her mother’s hospital stay. Additionally June is Chinese-American in a small southern town. Clay is dealing with survivor’s guilt and adjusting so civilian life. There are complicated family dynamics at play. One of the side characters is figuring out how to come out to her parents. The town itself is struggling to modernize and survive. All this helped weave a story with a lot of depth.
I am excited to read the next book in the series about June’s sister May. Thank you to Forever for the digital ARC on NetGalley and gifted copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, this book was okay. I could not suspend disbelief over the fact that a new freeway was built in a year (or even less time) - with all the environmental impact reports, design requirements, finding funding, other things, I'm going to say it' takes more than a year to build a freeway.

I was also bothered by things being generically "Asian". Yes, I understand that sometimes the term Asian is needed for descriptions, but I feel that it was used too often as a shortcut.

June forcing herself to do too much, and Clay needing to expand his focus weren't really things I enjoyed either. I guess it's hard for me to describe my issues. However, I did like the author's style of writing, even though this book wasn't quite for me, and sometimes that is the most important part of a debut - did the writing work for me. The writing was interesting enough even when the plot was not, so I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

I listened to the audio version of this book and it was perfect. The narrators were simply wonderful. Tthe love story was a very emotional and touching one. I can't recommend it enough.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love romance novels set in small towns. And this was a great one. It had all the elements I love in a romance novel.

The Inn on Sweetbriar Lane by Jeannie Chin was such a WONDERFUL small-town romance!
OMG I can't even put this special feeling - while I read this book - into good words.
The Story of June and Clay left me with a warm heart and a smile on my face.
Please don't let this cute book cover fool you!
It get's really really HOT between the main characters!
Soooo...Clay moves to Blue Cedar Falls to open a bar... vis-a-vis to the Inn of June's family. A bar? In a small-town like Blue Cedar Falls? The people in town are NOT really excited about... and June is one of them.
What starts as hate and suspicion between June and Clay... turns into something different. 😉
Well I absolutely didn't expect to FALL IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK SO MUCH!
It's definitely so much moooore than you would think because of the cover!
So it's really true: don't judge a book by its cover. ❤
I love a good enemies-to-lovers story! And the chemistry between Clay and June was PERFECT! OMG I got goose bumps EVERYWHERE when they first kissed!
Awwwwwww!!!
Okay I really can't swooning here!!!
And I hope there'll be more to come! I need MOOOORE! Everyone in Blue Cedar Falls was so cute - well not everyone. LOL
But most of them are great! You'll know what I mean when you read the book!
So get it now!
Thanks to Dana from Forever Grand Central Publishing and Jeannie Chin for this ARC via Netgalley. And sorry for my belated review!

♡ This is my honest review with my own words. ♡

This book really took me by surprise. The cover made it seem like this sweet, cute little romance. It was so much more. This is my first book by this author, and I can't wait for more. It was well written with good conflict. I loved the hero and heroine. This book was steamy, fun and hit me in all the feels. Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

3.5 / 4 stars, rounded up to four.

I've been going back and forth on how to rate this one, and I think I'm going to split the difference between the ratings. The Inn on Sweetbriar Lane was a lovely read and the start to a new series. This story is perfect for those that are fans of small-town romances, opposites-attract, and enemies-to-lovers.

The reader is introduced to June Wu as life takes a turn for the more complicated. Medical bills from her mother's treatments are piling up, the family inn could use a few more visitors, and a grumpy stranger is opening a bar across the street in the middle of the quaint main street of Blue Cedar Falls. The stranger is Clay Hawthorne, an ex-soldier who moved to Blue Cedar Falls to fulfill his best friend's dream of opening the bar. Almost immediately June and Clay clash, but they quickly discover that they may make a better team than opponents if they can iron out their differences.

Overall, I enjoyed this read. I didn't get into it as much as I wanted, but I enjoyed the setting. I especially enjoyed the relationships that each of the main characters had with their close friends throughout the story. With the inclusion of the Pumpkin Festival that June is planning, this is a great romance read for the autumn season.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Warning: This book discusses some sensitive topics that may be triggering for some readers including death, grieving, parent recovery from stroke, depression, PTSD, trauma, and childhood loss of parents.