"On Moonberry Lake" is a Christian romance. Cora's father and father's family were never mentioned. I kept expecting her to discover that the fallout between her mother and her parents was about Cora's father, but it's not. I was disappointed that Cora's mother completely cut off communication with her parents and refused to forgive them over the actual reason as the main offense wasn't even against her.

Cora's good at one thing: running away from uncomfortable situations. She even left her winter coat behind in frigid weather because she felt embarrassed. She was left her grandparent's lodge in an effort to get her to stick out hard situations and learn to deal with them. She must stay at the lodge for one year, and the building needed a lot of hard work to fix all of the problems. As Cora made friends with the quirky neighbors, she found the family she's been longing for and learned to accept and even love people who initially made her uncomfortable.

The characters were entertaining and engaging. Ben, the very normal love interest, was supportive, kind, and patient. The neighbor who's a pastor is the only character that was obviously Christian, and some of her friends probably weren't. (The artist kept referring to the universe directing things.) Cora's not a Christian, yet at the end she connected with God and felt enveloped in His care despite the hard things happening to her and her friends. There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this novel to those who enjoy quirky characters.

I quite enjoyed this affirming tale of a woman's personal journey in small town Minnesota. Clean, filled with genuine characters, this tale felt like it would make a great Hallmark series or movie. I would welcome the opportunity to read more about these folks.

Personally, I enjoyed reading a positive story, filled with genuinely good people.

Recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

On Moonberry Lake is a heart-warming story of love, friendship, and family. Cora inherits her grandparents’s inn, a place she hasn’t been in a couple decades. In the process of restoring the dilapidated inn, she gets to know her neighbors and all their quirky personalities. When tragedy strikes, she experiences the compassion of the community as everyone rallies to help those in need. This is a book I recommend, definitely one worth reading.

I loved reading On Moonberry Lake and taking this journey to this small town. I felt a connection to Cora right from the start. I greatly enjoyed it. Five stars.

What a wonderful story! I absolutely adored it! This book was such a delight to read and the best so far this summer!
This book really made me smile, laugh, and cry too.
I love Moonberry's residents, and I loved that each one had a gift waiting for Cora to discover. I really smiled when Cora began to find this. I think this town was just what she needed in order to find herself again.
Sometimes friends can be family too, and I, too, felt they were the family I've always wanted.
I didn't want it to end. I was sad when it did.
I have to admit that Widgy was my favorite character. I loved her no nonsense way, and she I'd a little harder to know than most in this book. But I do give her credit for being honest.
5 stars for a wonderful story. One that moved my heart in more ways than one! A wonderful debut novel!
I will be looking for more by Ms. Varni.
My thanks to Netgalley and Revell for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Absolutely adored this story. The main characters journey was beautiful and there is such a fantastic cast of characters, each unique and memorable, you can’t help but fall in love with them all. Found myself laughing out loud and reading sections to whoever was with me, especially the newspaper articles!
Love love loved, can’t wait for more from this author.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley UK for a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Cora is at the funeral of her mother, when she gets the news she had inherited her grandparents lodge at the lake. Working on the place (that had slowly been go to seed) and meeting lots of eccentric people makes it a fun read. A little bit of romance helps too. Good read for summer, and one I highly recommend.

Cora Matthews returns to her childhood hometown, Moonberry Lake, for the first time since she was seven years old. She never understood why there was a big upheaval in the family and why her mother whisked her away all those years ago.

I love the town of Moonberry Lake. Townsfolk are eccentric, but they have a strong sense of community. It’s not that they tolerate one another despite people’s eccentricities. It’s that people love one another and tolerate others’ eccentricities.

For a Christian fiction book, I’m surprised that the faith element isn’t more overt. The faith aspect is most prominent not in the neighbor who’s a hospital chaplain but in Kitty, the neighbor who’s a grave keeper. And Kitty’s faith has a New Age vibe… just one of her eccentricities.

The romance between Cora and her crush take up only a small portion of the book, but it’s done well. Hearts pitterpatter, things progress slowly and in a believable manner. Whether or not they actually end up together is for the reader to find out.

Varni’s prose is easy to follow, paints beautiful images, and contains plenty of pithy, quotable lines.

I truly enjoyed On Moonberry Lake, but it’s not perfect. I stumbled over some repetitious sentences, filtered descriptions, and sudden emotional swings that didn’t ring true in the context of the scene.

Overall, I give On Moonberry Lake a wow-five for the story and a perfectly adequate three for the execution. Four stars overall.

Thank you, NetGalley and Revell, for an advanced copy of On Moonberry Lake. I am happy to share my own thoughts about the book.

On Moonberry Lake was oddly enough just the thing I needed this week. I haven’t been feeling well and meeting all sorts of new family ands and seeing how they’ll were able to bond, and with a little nudge from God, they were able to find solutions that, like the butterfly effect, helped more people than just the who initially needed the help.

Moonberry Lake is fantastic and I for one cannot wait to read the next installment, in order to see who we can help next. Maybe it’s you.

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

On Moonberry Lake by Revell debut author, Holly Varni is sure to sweep you up and away with characters that will reach into your soul and make you long to have friends just like them.

When Cora Matthew's mother dies, she discovers she has left her a dilapidated lodge on Moonberry Lake. She has many fond memories there with her grandparents and her mother. But one day, when she was seven years old, her mother left with Cora in tow and never talked to her parents again. Cora has a lot of anger issues toward her mother because she uprooted her from a happy family environment. Especially since her grandparents died and she never got to see them again. Moonberry Lake holds bittersweet memories for her.

As she works on renovating the lodge, she comes to know her very quirky neighbours. At first, she is a little put off by them, but little by little, Cora discovers words of wisdom from each of them, and she begins to discover the family she was always missing.

I loved this book! I knew it was going to be a good one when I was laughing before I finished the first page. The cast of characters is charming, and funny, and has so many words of wisdom for Cora that, as a reader, you will be hard-pressed not to take them to heart. Kitty was so sweet and dedicated to keeping the dead alive with her stories. Widgy reminded me of Oiser in the movie Steel Magnolias, played by Shirley MacLaine. I could easily see this book being made into a movie.

If you like heartwarming fiction and romance too, you will delight in On Moonberry Lake! I highly recommend it!

I received a complimentary copy courtesy of Revell through NetGalley for my honest review.

What a great story! My heart ached for Cora at the beginning of the story. I felt bad for her too to be surrounded by these characters from the lake. It was incredible as the story went on to learn more about these eccentric characters and to fall in love with each of them. I usually highlight a few characters that I liked but this story has so many, each person that I met, I grew to love.



Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The opinions are my own.

I enjoyed On Moonberry Lake. Varni's colorful, quirky characters added so much life to the story. When Cora goes back to Moonberry to the lodge she inherited, she's overwhelmed by the amount of work the place needs and haunted by the reasons her mom took her away when she was young. Just when she thinks she's ready to put down roots, disaster strikes and leaves her wondering what to do next. If you enjoy interesting characters, a beautiful setting, and a great story, read On Moonberry Lake. I received a free copy with no expectations.

When a woman inherits her grandparent's old in, she finds love and a sense of family in the quirky characters she meets.

On Moonberry Lake by Holly Varni is a charming heartwarming story,

Cora Matthews moved away at age seven with her mother. She never knew why her mother never went back to visit her grandparents. Which caused a separation between Cora and her mother. And a mystery she could not solve.

After her mothers death, she inherits the lodge and comes back to a new beginning. But will she stay? Meeting her neighbors of this small town, she is drawn in, and is accepted like family.

I loved the characters in this story. Widgy, the handywoman who takes on the lodge renovation. Kitty, the elderly widow who cares for the cemetery. Joseph, the neighbor who lavishes Cora with homegrown vegetables. And so many more. A bit of a mystery with a budding romance, disasters, and friendships. The story is clean and well written.

I received a complimentary an e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

5 stars

On Moonberry Lake
Not at all what I expected this book to be, it was so much better! I was completely absorbed into Cora's world and life from the first page. On Moonberry Lake is an absolutely lovely tale of family fractures, life, love and starting anew. The power of the friendships formed with the oddest people imaginable is just delightful. I guess this could be considered a romance, but it is truly more about Cora finding her faith, family and happiness amidst the mess of life.
I have never read this author before, but I am sure to go find more of her books ASAP.
I highly recommend this book. I truly hope there will be a sequel.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.

Cora has inherited a broken down house that was once a bed and breakfast. The kicker is that she has to live in this house for one year and fix it up. Once the year is completed, she will own the house out-right and all expenses will be reimbursed. She remembers the house well as she spent quite a bit of her young years living there, but something happened that estranged her mother from her grandmother.

With a cast of characters filling out the story in this book, Cora learns what she needed to know about her mother and her mother's family. Each character seems to hold a piece of the puzzle Cora is trying to put together that makes up the tapestry of her life.

Holly Varni has taken some hidden circumstances and built a cohesive novel that grabs the reader's attention from the very first page. She has written about small town America, where each small town has its own colorful people. Every character in the book is a welcome addition to a well-rounded friend group.
On Moonberry Lake is a great read for a couple of lazy afternoons. It is engaging, compelling, surprising, and altogether interesting. I give it five stars, two thumbs up, and a restored B&B on a peaceful lake.

Revell Publishing provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Cora's life is in a state of upset. Her mother just died, she broke off her engagement, and she discovers she is now the heir to a northwoods lodge in Minnesota on Moonberry Lake. Cora's plan is to get in, find a realtor, sell it, and move on with her life. Life has other plans for her. When she finds out she has to spend one year on site before she can dispose of the property, she sets out to do some minor repairs. There are no minor repairs - they are all major repairs. The longtime caretaker of the lodge helps her find people to work for her and Cora gradually finds her place in the community. She helps an elderly neighbor care for a small rural cemetery, (the neighbor talks to the "residents" of the cemetery), and deals with her cantankerous neighbor, meets a free=spirited artist and bread baker, and finds love.

This could be a schmaltzy love story, but it ends up being so much more. Cora figures out so much about her mother and in turn, about herself. Sometimes the ordinary day-to-miracles are the ones we need the most.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a review.

I loved this story, the characters were great, and it made you want to move the town. rally enjoyed the story, would like to read more from this author.

I would give this book a 3.5 to a 4. I very much enjoyed the writing and the story. However there were quite a few areas that were contradictory and a bit unrealistic that kept the book from being really good. Some of the catch phrases/bits of wisdom in the book were delightful and wonderful and very applicable to this world we live in - honestly my favorite part of the book! I thought the author did a good job of putting them in the right places although sometimes it got a bit preachy. The overall theme of finding a family was warm and lovely. I received an ARC of this book and give thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley. All comments are my own.

I loved this book. The characters were wonderful and the description of the town made you want to be there. Cora had lost her mother and her mother's instructions were to take her home to Moonberry Lake for burial. Cora had loved this town for the first 7 years of her life, and then her mother moved them away and would never tell her why. We didn't find out why until close to the end of the book. It was a very good surprise. Cora had never had many friends and in this small town, she found a family of them. All walks of life and all ages. She felt at home I can't wait for the next book in the series

I got this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review