Sweet Tea and Sympathy

Harper (Where the Wild Things Bite) puts her own spin on a fish-out-of-water tale in this romantic comedy. Margot Cary was a talented event planner in Chicago, looking forward to making partner in her firm, until an unmitigated disaster involving flamingos run amok got her fired. Out of a job and facing the prospect of losing her apartment, she is suddenly contacted by an aunt that she never knew existed and reluctantly accepts her job offer. The family of Margot’s absent father welcomes her to Lake Sackett, Ga., to work for the McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop. After a prickly start, Margot gets to know her extended family and her father, Stan. She also meets (and makes out with in a truck behind the local bar) handsome elementary school principal and “depressive lumberjack” Kyle Archer, a widowed father of two. As Margot sorts out her feelings for Kyle and finds her footing in her new town, Harper sets her heroine a challenge to suit her talents in taking over the local Founders’ Festival. Margot is a terrific lead for Harper’s supporting cast of quirky characters. This is a promising start to Harper’s Southern Eclectic series. (Nov.)