Book Review: Welcome to the Honey B&B by Melody Carlson

Welcome to the Honey B&B by Melody Carlson 
3 Stars 

I read Welcome to the Honey B&B with my friend Melissa and this had the makings of a cozy, heartfelt small-town story with a realistic and heartfelt portrayal of CT and Honey walking through CT's dementia diagnosis. Knowing this was a personal story for Melody, I can see the level of care, detail and heart she put into writing it. I really felt the empathy as a reader for the characters and loved Honey's character the most. I teared up a couple of places because of what they were going through.

In this story, Jewel goes home to Oregon to help her parents and takes her 13 year old daughter Cooper with her. Jewel convinces her parents to turn a farmhouse into a B&B to make some needed money. Aaron, the contractor for the job, is interested in Jewel but she isn't sure she can trust him. Miguel is a neighbor that also helps out and cares about her family's well being. Jewel and Miguel have more of a romantic interest together in this but Aaron doesn't really like that due to the history with Miguel and he continues to pursue Jewel for his own personal gain. 

While I enjoyed the chapters with Honey and CT so much, I ran into several frustrations that kept this from being a higher rated read for me personally. Jewel as a main character often felt so passive, specifically when it came to standing up for her father. Aaron really didn't need to be in this book, he felt like he was added for the drama of the book but he would say horrible things about her father, knowing his health diagnosis, and Jewel never really would stand up for her Dad. That really bothered me, because he would have been out of there so fast if that was me. The lack of backbone just made it hard for me to connect with her or root for her decisions. 

My friend Melissa made a really great point in our buddy read that this would have been a stronger read if it was more focused on Honey and CT and not so much Jewel's drama with Aaron, Miguel, her daughter etc. Maybe some flashbacks of Honey and CT's life together. I totally agree with that point. 

Another disappointment was the B&B itself. The title leaves me to believe we will have more details about the B&B, but you don't see it until the very end. It felt very incomplete in the end.

At just around 280 pages, the book felt too short to fully flesh out certain relationships and arcs. While I loved Honey and CTs story and appreciated the heartfelt dementia storyline, my frustrations with Jewel’s character, the unnecessary drama from Aaron, and the lack of actual B&B scenes ultimately left me feeling like the story was missing something.

I still very much enjoyed the experience reading this story and felt like the Christian faith elements added were beautiful, specifically with Honey and CTs journey...the conversation surrounding CT would be better not in this life or on this earth was emotional for me. I just wanted a bit more from the story as mentioned above.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7351859274
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4mB1EFW
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/598765

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