🎧 The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn Brown #CarolynBrown @brit_pressley @TantorAudio #LoveAudiobooks #KindleUnlimited @SnyderBridge4 #Montlake @sophiarose1816

Posted February 13, 2023 by Robin in Book Review / 28 Comments

Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


🎧 The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn Brown #CarolynBrown @brit_pressley @TantorAudio #LoveAudiobooks #KindleUnlimited @SnyderBridge4 #Montlake  @sophiarose1816 The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn Brown
Published by Tantor Audio on February 14, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Length: 8 hours, 20 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon,  Audible
one-flame
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

For Grace Dalton, her sister, Sarah, and her cousin Macy, the Devine Doughnut Shop is a sweet family legacy and a landmark in their Texas town. As the fourth generation to run the Double D, they keep their great-grandmother’s recipe secret and uphold the shop’s tradition as a coffee klatch for sharing local gossip, advice, and woes. But drama brews behind the counter, too.

Grace is a single mother struggling with an unruly teenage daughter. Heartbroken Sarah has sworn off love. Macy’s impending wedding has an unexpected hitch. And now charming developer Travis Butler has arrived in Devine with a checkbook and a handsome smile. He wants to buy the shop, expand it nationally, and boost the economy of a town divided by the prospect.

Sophia’s Review:

Four generations of Dalton women have held the secret recipe and run the Devine Donuts aka Double D in small town Devine, TX.  They’ve shared laughter, tears, private pains, and a tough triumph to hang in there.  Now, Grace, Sarah, Macy, and young Audrey, with a newcomer to their midst, Raelyn are the current Daltons to face big developers, small town gossip, teen angst, broken hearts, sisterhood, and a little romance.

Wild Sarah is the oldest Dalton sister and she’s kicked up her heels and given ‘em something to talk about for years, but that was to cover her private resentment to have to return to Devine after her mama died and pick up the reins right when her sister got herself into trouble with a bad boy who broke her heart.  Deep down in her heart, she’s ready to settle down with a loving man and start a family.

Grace, the younger sister, made a teenage mistake and ended up raising Audrey without her runaway bad boy Jake, and now she’s the mainstay of the family and the doughnut shop.  Her daughter is making her own big mistakes and Grace is using tough love to waking Audrey up to the truth of her ‘popular friends’ and mean girl behavior that thinks she’s entitled to wealth and a cushy life.  What she hadn’t counted on was pesky feelings of attractions for the big businessman developer who wants her to sell shop and property, Travis Butler.

Macy is a Dalton cousin like a sister who seems to have the happily ever after all sewn up with her good man, Neal.  But if something sounds too good to be true… then hell hath no fury Texas-style.

Audrey knows best over her behind the times mama and aunts and she’s in the popular crowd if she can keep her friends happy and not knowing her mom took in her geeky former bestie after Raelyn was homeless when her gran died and mom skipped town, gah!  Slave in the donut shop through her spring break all because she covered for her friends by getting caught with their booze and cigs?  But, maybe she doesn’t know everything and it takes a hard fall to discover this while she’s young.

Loved the multi-generational focus on family and sisterhood and life in this light, heartwarming small town women’s fic.

One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

Robin’s Review:

The Devine Doughnut Shop is only my second book by Carolyn Brown, who writes stories about families.  In a doughnut shop in a small town, two sisters and their similar aged cousin run the shop.  There is a new player in town and a once in a lifetime opportunity for them to sell the family business or decide to keep the routine they have now.

Grace had a daughter out of wedlock young.  She still has some emotional baggage to deal with from that experience and her daughter now a teenager has some life lessons to learn.  Audrey wants to be popular and gave up her former friends in order to in the cool click.  She will learn some mean girl lessons the hard way and Grace will be a good parent through it all helping Audrey learn that with actions there are consequences both good and bad.  Grace is also going to need to decide if Trevor is just interested in her shop and land or if there is more there to explore.

Sarah and Macy both are not really lucky in love right now and having the town gossip about them might be good for business with everyone showing up for doughnuts and to see if they catch any news, it is bad for their hearts.  But families stick together and Grace, Macy and Sarah will be there for each other with comfort and support and no judgement which is nice to know you have a safe harbor when the world seems out to get you.

Audrey I was a little worried about with her blinders on but spending a little more time with her family and a former friend Raelene.  I will say I loved Raelene, she has fallen on some hard time since her grandmother died and her mom took off without her.  Her story broke my heart a little since she thought she was alone in this world but found a family in an unexpected place.

The story is really about a small town and how a family can find solace in each other and be supportive.  There is a slow burn romance in the background but for the most part it is just a story about the relationships of the three women and how they impact each others lives.  I enjoyed this women’s fiction story with the family story and the small town as the backdrop.  There is just something about stories in small towns that always works for me.

Narration:

Brittney Pressley is an experienced narrator and it shows.  She does a great job at capturing the voice of all the women in this story in their various journeys. The southern twang added to the authenticity of the small town too.  I enjoyed her narration and was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.

Listen to the clip:  HERE 

 

About Carolyn Brown

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Brown was born in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma. These days she and her husband make their home in Davis, Oklahoma, a small town of less than three thousand people where everyone knows everyone, knows what they are doing and with whom, and read the weekly newspaper to see who got caught.

A plaque hangs on her office wall that says I know the voices are not real but they have such great ideas. That is her motto and muse as she goes through the days with quirky characters in her head, telling their stories, one by one, and loving her job.

She has been married almost half a century to a retired English teacher that she calls Mr. B and he does not read her books before they are published because she cannot afford a divorce. They have three grown children.—and enough grandchildren to keep them busy and young.

When Carolyn is not writing she likes to sit in the back yard and watch the two tom cats protect the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, other cats, spiders and blue jays.

About Sophia

Reviewer at Books of My Heart

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Dialogue
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Narration (Audio)
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Robin
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Posted February 13, 2023 by Robin in Book Review / 28 Comments


28 responses to “🎧 The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn Brown

  1. This sounds like a good one. I like the sound of the set up with the donut shop and small town settings are always fun to read about. I plan to give this author’s books a try one day as they sound good.