"Sweet Caroline" Blog Tour and Contest

Thanks to LitFuse Publicity for providing a free review copy of this book. No other compensation was received for this review. The opinions contained herein are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.

Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck is a fun read. Caroline, the main character, has always put others before herself, and when the owner of the cafe where she works dies, she is left having to decide whose needs are more important - her own (accepting her dream job in Barcelona, Spain) or those around her (keeping the cafe open).

Coinciding with her occupational struggles, her romantic life also becomes a struggle. Will she date J.D., the town deputy, or will she and her first love, Mitch, find that they still fit together?

As if occupational and romantic dilemmas weren't enough, Caroline finds herself being pursued by God, Whom she has never known nor cared to know. Could He really care about her?

I'm not giving you any more details about the story, but I will tell you that this is an easy-to-read and entertaining story. To see what other bloggers have to say, visit the blog tour schedule. To purchase this book, visit Amazon.com.

If you would like a chance to win a Scrumptious Baking Basket from Rachel (the basket contains a Super Cool Apron -pictured on right, a Low country cook book signed by PAT CONROY, rolling pin, and a pie plate), all you have to do to enter is sign up for Rachel's newsletter.

As an additional bonus, here is the recipe for Bubba's Buttery Biscuits:

• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled, plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted for brushing the tops
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the flour and chilled butter in a medium mixing bowl. Work the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingertips until the butter pieces are a little larger than an English pea, but not larger than a lima bean. If you are using your fingers, work quickly so that the heat of your hands won't melt the butter.

Pour in all of the buttermilk and, using light pressure, fold the mixture a few times with a plastic spatula until it holds together. Do not over mix. In order to make light biscuits, it is important to work the dough as little as possible.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead it quickly and gently 6 to 10 times or until it begins to be almost homogenized. There will be large pieces of butter throughout.

Sprinkle a little flour under the dough so that it won't stick to the board and lightly dust the top of the dough so that it won't stick to the board and lightly dust the top of the dough so that it won't stick to the rolling pin. Roll the dough out to about 1/2-inch thickness.

Cut the dough into 2-inch rounds, place on an ungreased baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. I like the biscuits to be crispy and brown on the top and bottom, but not dry in the middle. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and brush the tops of the biscuits with the melted butter. Serve right away. (recipe from Louis Osteen)

About Rachel:

I'm a forty-something, a child of the '60's, '70's, '80's, '90's and '00's. Born in Ohio, I lived several years in Oklahoma and Kentucky before my parents moved the family to Florida. I graduated from Ohio State University (Go Buckeyes!) with a degree in Journalism. As a member of Phi Mu sorority, I partied my way though the last few years of college.

But, the truth is, and always will be, I belong to Jesus. At the age of six, I knelt at the altar of a Tulsa Methodist church and gave my life to the One who loves me. I met Tony, my husband, in '87, at church, of all places. We got married in '92. Tony has been a pastor for twenty years. I've worked with him in eighteen of those twenty. Our heart is to see teens and adults passionate, radical and whole hearted for Jesus.

I've always wanted to be a writer. In '93, I started an epic WW2 novel with two plots. It was well rejected. After that ordeal, I took a break and put efforts into my job as a software project manager. But, I missed writing and in late ' 99, I took up the craft again.

With a little help from my friends, my first book was published in ' 04, Lambert's Pride, a romance novel. I love writing chick lit and romance. I love writing. What an honor.