review I have not read a book that I have loved as much as this book in a long time! A sassy 90 something lady named Sugar and the main character Merilee who unfortunately has a lot to overcome, mix the two together along with a few other characters and you have a great story! My least favorite character was Heather, the perfect wife, mother, room mother etc. We may all know someone  a bit like her, super organized, volunteers for all the school events and is just too perfect. Merilee has a lot to overcome and I loved seeing her get stronger as the story unfolded. I loved the blog posts by an anonymous ( until we figure out who the author is...) author was great! I cannot resist a book with a bit of an underlying mystery to it and a surprise twist. I was not sure if I would grow to like Sugar, at first I thought that her character was too taciturn but she really grew on me. The southern food and sayings were a nice touch to the story, another thing that I cannot resist in a book! I have read all of Karen Whites books and I can honestly say that each one is better than the next! This review was originally posted on A WordPress Site

I don't know why the book version is not available to choose on here. There are 406 pages total to this book. I love the cover and I was interested when I saw that this book was being compared to "Big Little Lies", which I want to read and "To Kill a Mockingbird", even though this wasn't one of my favorites. In the beginning I thought I'd like this book. It seemed like a grown up Gossip Girl. As the story went on I started hating Merilee's personality, especially the way she talked to Wade. I didn't like Sugar's flashbacks. I know they're supposed to be terrible moments from her past, and contrast with present day Sweet Apple. They didn't really add anything to the story for me. I wasn't excited to learn more about Sugar because I knew it would be just another tragedy to add to the pile and after the second it added nothing to her character development. I thought the ending was cliched and ridiculously unrealistic, even in a dramatic sort of way. I don't know. I did read the last 100+ pages in one sitting and they did hold my attention, but I was mostly just trying to get done with the book quickly. The only two characters in this book that I liked were Wade and Dan and they were both made for the background. And another book with unrealistic seeming kids. I don't know, I just really did not enjoy this book.

If I could give 1/2 stars, this would be 3 1/2. It's a nice, well written story for what it is. A little predictable but I enjoyed getting to know the people of Sweet Apple.