I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This book wasn't for me as I tried to read and listen to it and could not connect.

This was a sweet, Southern book. As an Alabama native, I loved the setting and thought the author did it a lot of justice!

I love these kinds of stories - romance, hard life topics, and deep emotions. New to me author drew me in and held me there with captivating characters, great storylines and an ending that I thoroughly enjoyed. Will definitely be telling my friends about this book.

A sweet, southern fiction that will warm your heart. One Southern Summer is a clean romance with second chances. Perfect for your summer beach read.

This was a fun southern read. I really liked the main character, though I did think she was a bit naive at times. I also felt like I really wanted her to push herself. I liked the side characters and the romance and it was a lovely light read.

One Southern Summer by Heidi McCahan is a charming, clean romance that was a delight to read. I loved Avery coming back home to Camellia, Alabama to recover from a traumatic divorce and being loved on by her mom, stepdad, nana, and sisters. The love between them all was beautiful and really helped Avery to heal. Another person who was huge in her healing journey was Cole, a friend since childhood also dealing with a difficult past. Watching Avery and Cole grow closer and heal together was sweet, I highly recommend this book.

With One Southern Summer by Heidi McCahan, it was sweet tea and lemonade time to go with the down home, Southern feel of the book.

Avery Lansing Crawford left her small town behind and rose to fame as a designer, even having a season on TV. When she finds her co-star husband in a compromising position, she decides to leave her old life behind and return home.

As Avery tries to adjust to life back home, her grandmother is ready for her to get back out there and does her best to meddle in her love life. She secretly arranges for Avery to help her old friend design a home to help his charity for trafficking victims. Avery must overcome her imposter syndrome to succeed.

This was an easy read of a book, and I enjoyed it for a light summer romance.

Pick this one up if you want a romance that is:
☑️small town
☑️second chance
☑️clean
☑️wholesome

This was a great beach read about family, hope, and second chances. I loved the Southern theme.
Many thanks to Harlequin and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book. It was very good, but kind of slow. Thats just my opinion, maybe my live distracted me more while I was reading it.

🍋Summary🍋
Avery has moved back to her small town in Alabama after losing her career and husband in a very public situation. She and her two young children are staying with her mom and stepfather. While she is home, she can also reconnect with her two sisters, her grandmother and her old friend, Cole. Her grandmother is meddling as she does best. And Cole is giving her the opportunity to start over with her career, putting her design skills to the test by designing a home for women who have escaped human trafficking. The implosion of her previous life has shaken her confidence in both her career and love.

🍋Review🍋
I signed up for this book and was super excited about it but it left me wanting. It felt like a sweet romance but it also seemed to try to stuff in some really heavy things… The human trafficking storyline, while important, felt like it came from a very different book. I feel like there was a missed opportunity on the situation with Avery’s ex husband and how he left her. He seemed to get off very easy. I don’t know. And he was from the same small town as Avery, where she was best friends with Cole and didn’t have anyone but suddenly at college she ended up with that guy? I enjoyed the second chance of it all and loved Cole but some of the plot points confused me. It felt like there was room for sequels following the grandmother and being interfering with Avery’s sisters.

I loved this book. I was obsessed with this book. This story was so sweet without being completely unrealistic. This book is one of my new favorites. I hadn't read a book that did as good of a job as showing a romance that is realistic but also super sweet. I liked that this book was not spicy. I liked the clean, cute, and sweet romance of it. I also liked how they talked about being a Christian. It was a common theme throughout the story, but the characters weren't totally perfect. As all of us christians are broken and fallen people, I loved how it showed the church as not only being a place for perfect people.

4/5 stars

This was a feel good book filled with second chances, twists and turns and it tackles tough subjects too. One Southern Summer pulls on your heartstrings and made me think about our culture with Social Media and where I find my personal values.

Avery Landing Crawford, a social media influencer finds her world turned upside down when she catches her husband having an affair. Her life is shattered and she finds herself taking her two small children back to the town she grew up in - Camilla, Alabama.

Unannounced to her, Avery's grandmother gets her a job with a non-profit company in town which is run by her former friend Cole.

Cole and Avery's relationship blossoms as they navigate the non-profit expansion, her relationship with her ex-husband and his partner wanting to see their children and the gossiping southern town that won't leave them alone.

I liked this book but the ending felt a bit rushed. This book kept me entertained and I would read more books set in this town.

This is a wonderful story of redemption, forgiveness and second chances. Avery returns home after her marriage and career implode. She's living with her mother and stepfather, and accepts a job with her best friend.

What she doesn't know is that Cole's not only a friend, but has loved her since high school. He accepts a sizeable donation from her grandma, with the request to put Avery in charge of product design. He agrees because he believes in her skills and talents. As they grow closer, he struggles with telling her the truth and when it's revealed Avery feels defeated, misled and used. Can she get over the actions her grandma took to push she and Cole together?

You'll want to read this timeless story to find out how everything is resolved and cheer on Avery as she seeks forgiveness and acceptance.

Although I received a free ARC ebook from Net galley and the publisher, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The absolute perfect beach read. Do you have a trip coming up, you must grab this book. I love the way the author describes each person and event.

The basis of this novel is a sweet and predictable second chance love story. However, I think the execution missed on several points. There was a LOT going on in this book - from human trafficking to husbands coming out as gay to addiction issues. I think the author tried one too many tropes as well. Things just felt muddled and I just never felt like I truly knew where we were headed. There were some questions definitely left unanswered.

I was really excited about this book - then I had to drag myself through it.

Nice beach read and a pleasant story. The story got much better the closer it got to the end.

There was a lot going on and some of the story could have been muted.

This isn’t exactly a faith based novel.

I just reviewed One Southern Summer by Heidi McCahan. #OneSouthernSummer #NetGalley

This is a great summer read! I loved the small town in Alabama where this takes place and how Avery returns home to have a second chance in life. Cole is a great character and I also liked the supporting characters and the family matriarch Maribelle. Reading this book with sweet tea or lemonade is absolutely perfect. I'll be looking for more books from this author!

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

From the first pages read while sitting by a lake to the last pages read while ignoring my bed time, I fell in love with Avery and Cole and the town of Camellia, Alabama. I love a sweet, small town romance and this one hit that mark completely. But there was so much more to this story. From family dynamics, to the ugly parts of social media influencing, to sex trafficking awareness, One Southern Summer is full of heart and grit. Heidi McCahan is an author I will be looking to read more of.

Thank you Uplit Reads and Harper Collins for the gifted copy.

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Read if you like:
Southern fiction
Small town romance
Second chance romance
Friends to lovers

Avery is a social media influencer and a tv personality. All is well in her world with her husband and 2 kids. Or so she thinks. She gets the shock of her life and then ends up back living at home with her parents in Camellia, Alabama, trying to sort out what has happened to her life and where she goes from there.
When her feisty Nana goes behind her back and makes a deal with the local nonprofit organization to hire Avery, without Avery knowing anything about it, she takes a job working with Cole, trying to expand Imani’s House. Imani’s house is a safe place for women who have been trafficked or abused and it means a lot to Cole because his sister was a victim. So when Avery breezes back into his life after all this time and he stuck has feelings for her, it complicates things when someone finds the napkin they wrote their pact on that if they were birth single when they were 32 then they would get married. Now a documentary crew is coming to film the work on Imani’s place and now that they’ve heard about the napkin, they want to meet the lovers. I liked that Avery relied on her faith to make her decisions on what to do next. Although not your normal Christian fiction, I found this book eye opening, faithful, and endearing. Highly recommend.

My first read by this author and I'm hooked! If I could describe this book, I'd say it was like a sweet summer day, rocking on a big farmhouse porch, sipping a drink of sweet tea. Probably a summer storm nearby to represent the trouble that Avery is going through. Can Cole carry her heart through the turmoil just like he did in their high school years? Heidi McCahan has taken sweetness of a clean romance and added seriousness of family drama, brought them together for a story that can't be put down.

Thank you to Netgalley, Heidi McCahan and Love Inspired for this ebook edition in exchange for an honest review.