SLIGHTLY SOUTH OF SIMPLE BY KRISTY WOODESON HARVEY

8/22/2021

Fans of beach reads, and southern novels are going to want to check out Kristy Woodson Harvey! She clearly has a knack for southern women’s fiction, and I enjoyed this book quite a bit more than I thought I would!

Rating: ★★★★
Release Date: April 25, 2017
Genre: Women's Fiction
Series: The Peachtree Bluff series #1
Pages: 401 pages
Format: Paperback. Source: Purchased.

Caroline Murphy swore she’d never set foot back in the small Southern town of Peachtree Bluff; she was a New York girl born and bred and the worst day of her life was when, in the wake of her father’s death, her mother selfishly forced her to move—during her senior year of high school, no less—back to that hick-infested rat trap where she'd spent her childhood summers. But now that her marriage to a New York high society heir has fallen apart in a very public, very embarrassing fashion, a pregnant Caroline decides to escape the gossipmongers with her nine-year-old daughter and head home to her mother, Ansley.

Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military

husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.

Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.

PURCHASE A COPY

AMAZON KINDLE | AMAZON PRINT | LISTEN WITH AUDIBLE

𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗙𝗙 𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦

READ MY BOOK REVIEW

𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 𝗦𝗡𝗔𝗣𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗧: Fans of beach reads, and southern novels are going to want to check out Kristy Woodson Harvey! She clearly has a knack for southern women’s fiction, and I enjoyed this book quite a bit more than I thought I would!

Slightly South of Simply by Kristy Woodson Harvey is most definitely a beach read! I’m glad I picked it up for the season. Not only that, but I can also see why readers describe her as a “major voice in southern fiction” and others say she IS the “queen of southern fiction.” All of this became apparent to me when I was reading. It feels southern, the mannerisms are southern, and I felt like I was on the beach in the south while reading. If you’re a fan of all this, then I recommend picking this one up if you haven’t yet! It’s the first in a 3 (or 4) part series and follows a mother and her three daughters. This particular book focused on Ansley (the mom) and Caroline (her daughter) as they navigate love, the potential for divorce, and family.

My one and only gripe with this book is that it FELT like there was some fat shaming. I don’t know if this comes from the authors personal views on a bigger lady or if she was simply trying to get us to understand Caroline on a deeper level, but it stood out to me and even bothered me a little. One phrase for example went something like this: “I don’t get why women think that just because they are older that their metabolism doesn’t work anymore. It’s simple, stop eating so much and work out more and you’ll be thinner.” I simply paraphrasing here as I can’t find the exact quote, but I thought this, and a few other things were distasteful. Readers may be turned off by the author BECAUSE of little things like this peppered throughout the book.

Other than that, this is a solid novel and I enjoyed reading it despite the smaller things that got on my nerves. I do hope this is rectified in the next book because while I’m really excited to read it (this one ends on a little bit of a cliffhanger) I won’t be reading more if there is any other fat shaming stuff within it.

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐