This lovely small town is on an economic downslide when the state wants to build a stadium for the Carolina Panthers. Hattie, a big-time event planner, has come home to help her parents on the farm. The farm is failing due to soil, so Hattie helps them start an event business in their barn. Meanwhile, the company Hattie works for is planning a big event which could make her a partner. Her father has had a heart attack, and she is forced to stay in town longer.
The townspeople are desperate to keep their small-town status while Hattie supports the stadium to keep the town alive.
She rekindles a relationship with high school sweetheart but there is a new, mysterious man in town who took over the hardware store. Will Hattie stay with Lee? Is the mysterious Fox worth pursuing? What will happen in the town and more importantly, Hattie’s parents’ farm and event venue?
Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a slow burn for me getting into it but once I did, I could not put the book down. It did seem to have a lot of characters that were not the main characters but some of them did add to the storyline. I will definitely read more by this author!

This talented author has written a page turner. Realistic characters keep the story moving quickly. Family and friends…I was intrigued by the title. Small town romance and second chances…will love win out this time? A fun book. Thanks Netgalley

We love a good small-town romance where the heroine comes back to her hometown from the big city.

Hattie comes back to her hometown of Mountain View, South Carolina to support her parents when she finds out that her family's farm turns infertile. It's an interesting story to start because I was intrigued by the love triangle aspect featuring her old flame Lee Lockhardt, as well as the new mysterious guy Fox Ryan. The whole plot and storyline left me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. The back and forth of whether or not she was going to stay or go had me guessing what she was going to decide in the end.

Overall the book was interesting, so I highly recommend it if you enjoy a light, fun read!

This book had everything I like: small town romance, music, love triangle, quirky background characters. But it didn’t have any main characters that I liked (except Fox, a little). Not liking the characters made me struggle to get through the book. I understand flawed characters, but these characters (mostly Hattie and Lee) just didn’t seem like mature adults. This was tough to rate, but I settled on 3 (2.5) stars because I did like the plot.

Just a sweet wonderful book. This book is about Hattie who has run from her hometown of Mountain View SC seeking new adventure. Like most kids graduating high school any place is more exciting than a small podunk farming town. But after reaching success in event planning she gets a call to come home for an emergency. The Carolina Panthers are looking for a new place to build a stadium and Mountain View is at the top of the list. Problem is nobody in the small town wants it to happen. Hattie thinks a new stadium is just the thing for the dying town. But due to unforeseen circumstances, Hattie has to stay in Mountain View longer than she planned. Will she change her mind and help the town or stick to her guns? This was a great little detour from my usual diet of thrillers. Loved it.

A small town romance with some town drama... absolutely brilliant read! Debating a rating between 4.5 - 5 stars but it is definitely an amazing and quick read!

The romance side of the plot was fabulous and left you questioning it till the very last minute. Really enjoyed the main plot of small town community and all the side characters involved. The main character has been very likeable and 'realistic' - no body is perfect afterall!

The pace of the book was steady with it being faster at times but I really enjoyed it and the tone that it has set.

Overall, a brilliant read which I will definitely recommend to others!

What a delightful story!
Set in the fictional town of Mountain View SC, Joy’s story follows Hattie, an events planner. She returns to her hometown to help her parents. Meanwhile, the dying farm town is being considered for a Panthers Stadium and Hattie fully supports the decision- against everyone else in the town. Add to the mix her old flame and an intriguing new hardware store owner. This novel is full of heart!
Pub date: June 10, 2025
@joycalloway
Thank you to net galley for this advance reader copy

Sing Me Home to Carolina is a heartwarming story of a girl who has to choose between what she thinks she’s supposed to want and what she really wants. The story focuses on learning what is truly important, the importance of family, and second chances.

This was not my favorite read. While I enjoyed the story overall, it felt there were a lot of parts of the storyline happening in tandem in a way that made it a little confusing to follow, and a little unclear what the overall plot or storyline was. It was an otherwise easy read, and I enjoyed Hattie’s perspective throughout.

Thank you to Alcove Press, and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sing Me Home to Carolina paints a heartfelt picture of small-town Southern life and the challenge of balancing family duty with personal dreams. As a Southern girl myself, I felt a bit frustrated with Hattie at first for not wanting to stay home, especially with how deeply her family and their farm need her. But I get it—small-town life can feel stifling, especially with the heartache and embarrassment she’s been through with Lee.

Fox ended up being my favorite character, bringing this steady, good-guy presence and a bit of mystery. I loved how he respects Hattie’s space but is there when she needs him, adding to the emotional depth of the story. The town’s support for Hattie and her family feels like a big, warm hug, from helping out on the farm to rallying together for events to save it.

With themes of family, tenacity, healing, and a bit of rekindled romance, Sing Me Home to Carolina is a sweet, feel-good read. It brings you a front-row seat to small-town Southern charm and the bittersweet tug-of-war between home and heart.

Thanks to Net Galley & the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

Every now and then you need a palate cleanser when you read a lot of thrillers/mysteries. This is a very sweet, relatively low angst home town romance. While I would have loved to see some things fleshed out a bit better (it seems our female character pretty easily changed direction from Lee to Fox), it was just what I needed to allow my heart to recharge.

In Sing me Home to Carolina, we meet Hattie, a big-city event planner in Charleston, South Carolina. Returning home to Mountain View to give emotional support to her parents whose farm has become infertile and which they are on the cusp of losing. At the same time, the small town is being considered by the state to have a stadium built there. They are in contention with another small town across the river. While there Hattie is the central figure among the residents who have taken up sides against her view of not signing the petition to have the stadium built in Mountain View. What is it like to live in "small town USA"? What is it like to walk down a main street that is no longer much of town given that many of the shops have been closed, their windows broken or boarded up and only 5 shops remain? Where is the pride amongst the residents who live there? This is the focus of the novel .Added to all of this there is Hattie's relationship with her boyfriend, whom she hasn't seen for 11 years and is now back living in Mountain View (at least for a while). This is a novel that the reader can not relate to most probably, but a novel where they can feel the angst, the frustrations and the fear of their lives being upended by progress (or greed). Reading this, gives you food for thought. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!!

What a good book! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I loved the main characters! They had great chemistry and worked so well together. I loved how the book just flowed. My first by this author but will not be my last!!!

I don't read a lot of romance but this novel's cover and description appealed to me. I live in the mountains of East Tennessee. I loved the story. It was fresh and honest and was indicative of the conflict that many have when they are faced with the familiarity of past love and the excitement and possibililies of new romance. Hattie is a good character. She loves her job as an event planner and is torn not just between two loves but two places. She adored the job she had, but now her family needs her and her hometown is facing its own struggle when the state threatens to build an NFL football stadium within its rural bounds. The novel abounds with neat settings; the event center Hattie and her friends create, the beauty shop where fresh donuts are fried, and the hardware store that one of her new friends owns. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the way the author brings the story home in the end. Thanks #joycallaway#netgalley#singmehome for the opportunity to read this book and give an unbiased review.

Sing Me Home to Carolina started out so great, and then slowly went downhill for me. The FMC, Hattie, was so difficult for me to like. She had no real character development but somehow two famous men just fall in love with her instantly?

All in all, it was a cozy read and entertaining due to the other characters and the town drama.

"How can you do all this and not want to stay?"

I picked up Sing me Home to Carolina to have a little break from all the thrillers I have been reading lately, as I needed something different. And this could not have been more different indeed. In Sing me Home to Carolina, we meet Hattie, a big-city event planner who is on the cusp of being made partner if only she can complete one more massive event for her boss, as she goes home to small-town Mountain View to help her parents deal with some devastating news about their farm. Hattie can't quite wait to get back to her own life, when she is made to stay and support the town's effort to protest the construction of a large stadium nearby. As Hattie tries to balance her big-town job with the demands of the town, she needs to figure out what is really important to her, a quest only underlined by the romance in this novel... Hattie rekindles a relationship with childhood sweetheart Lee. But who is the new-in-town, mysterious, and oh so handsome Fox?

I'll say this first, the plot and characters were okay to me. Nothing spectacular, but fun enough for a light read. Big City girl is recalled home to small town country land and needs to figure out whether it is the big city career or the comfortable home life with friends, family and loved ones near i she really wants. Add in a bit of a love triangle, and you pretty much have it. That being said, I absolutely LOVE the feelings of cosiness and warmth, of summer in a small-town, and of a countryside small community Sing me Home to Carolina was able to provoke. If you are looking for sweltering evenings, country style music (and lots of references to it), barn weddings with fairy lights, the feeling of floating down a river to clear your head, and the likes..... look no further, as this one has it all.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed reading it. I always love references to North Carolina, and the pacing was very engaging. Also Fox is a great example of healthy masculinity.

My frustration is that the main focus was Hattie's confusion about whether to stay or go. I didn't love how she kept switching back and forth between men (Fox was clearly the superior choice), and it just felt like the whole plot was driven by her inner confusion rather than the major events happening (including the romance). I would have loved to have gotten to know some of the other characters better instead of dwelling on her internal thoughts on whether or not she should stay in Mountain View.

Overall, it was fun to read, but wasn't quite satisfying.

"Sing Me Home to Carolina" is a wonderful story of first loves lost, small towns coming together, and southern charm.
Our main character Hattie, is returning home from her big city event planning job to her hometown of Mountain View, SC to help her aging parents. She runs into an old flame, and a pressing town issue - a national football team wants to build a new stadium in Mountain View, but the residents are protesting. It becomes the town versus Hattie - who thinks the stadium will bring new life and business to their withering town - but doesn't really think about how it will affect her parents' barn if that land is taken.

Hattie rekindles old friendships, old flames, and starts new ones. She realizes that change isn't always bad, and that sometimes it can affect you in ways you would never think of. This is a feel-good, heartwarming story, full of southern love! I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A cut palate cleanser. I love South Carolina and this book gave me the "feels". I liked the characters and became invested.
I liked the trope of renovating the barn into a building for parties.
Overall, I just had fun with the story.