Review Post: Lessons in Lemonade (Starving for Southern #3) by Kathryn Andrews

Title: Lessons in Lemonade
Series: Starving for Southern Series
Author: Kathryn Andrews
Genre: Contemporary/Sports Romance
Release Date: April 28, 2020

 

Meg Dukette
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
I believe in living my best life, and if surviving cancer taught me anything, it’s exactly that. I wake every day in the most beautiful city in the South, I’m a chef at my own restaurant, and everything is just the way I want it: easy, calm, and in perfect harmony—that is, until my best friend shows up with his wounded heart, smoldering gaze, and adorable dimples. Now, things are changing—we are changing—but with the promises I’ve made to myself, I don’t want them to. After everything I’ve been through, breaking them now seems unthinkable, but the alternative might be a lesson my heart’s not prepared to learn.
Jack Willett
Just when you think life is the best it’s ever been, fate has a way of intercepting.
I’ve spent ten years playing in the NFL, and with one wrong hit, my world comes crashing down. Now, I’m at the crossroads of what might become my past and a very different future. What I need is time and my best friend. Her gorgeous smiles, sexy legs, and optimistic outlook on life make the world brighter, better, and I’ve quickly found myself craving her more and more. She says we’re just friends, says that’s all we’ll ever be, but actions speak louder than words. It’s time to change the game, and I’m ready to pass the ball. I just hope she’ll be on the other end to catch it.
He’s her best friend.
She’s quickly turned into something more.
Will making a play for her heart be more bitter than sweet? Or will it add just the right amount of zest to make the most delicious ending of all . . .

 

*****5 Completely Amazing Stars*****

There are many things I know to be true in life, and at the top of that list is the fact that Kathryn Andrews writes amazing, unforgettable books that are truly in a league of their own.

I have been a fan of hers since her very first book Drops of Rain, and every new book, every new set of characters, every new world she lets me so vividly experience shows me again and again why she is one of my all-time favorite authors. Lessons in Lemonade was no different. This book brought me back to a world that I honestly never want to say goodbye to. This book gave me two characters that my heart was immediately with, and that I immediately believed in and rooted for with all what I had. This book was emotional, it was meaningful, it was viscerally beautiful, and it was romantic. It was sweet and swoony and funny.

It was everything. It was more. It was one of the best books I have read.

Every word of this book was incredible. I honestly can’t say that enough.

From the moment I met Meg and Jack, I knew those two were going to permanently own a piece of my heart. From the very first word of this book through the the very last, I was completely consumed with everything those two gave me. Their story and their intertwined journey together is about a lot of things. It is a story of second chances and what comes next. It is a story of emotional and life-changing upheaval that will bring you to places you never thought you’d be. It is a story of two people who are drawn to each other something fierce. It is a story of what happens when you push for more, a story about meeting that one person who makes you think about changing everything.

Lessons in Lemonade is a story of two friends who see what could be when sharing something more together soon becomes an option they can no longer resist.

I loved everything about this book. I loved the characters who completely stole my heart from the very first page. I loved that I could not put down this book for anything. I loved that this story not only took me on a journey with these characters and their relationship together, but it also highlighted their own personal stories and journeys that were just as important. I loved getting to be with the two of them in so many vivid and memorable moments. I loved getting to see a friendship blossom into something so deep, so real, and so beautiful. I loved how Kathryn Andrews once again allowed me to live and breathe and experience every syllable of her words through her incredible writing.

I loved it all.

if you have read the other books in this series, then you know that Meg and Jack were a story that needed to be told. You meet them both along the way in the other magnificent books that make up this series, and that set up is just part of what will have you so ready for their story. Even if this is your first time meeting them, you will love them from the start. I guarantee it. There is no way you can meet them and not fall hopelessly in love with them. They are just too good, too right, and too special to not love them with your whole heart.

And let me just tell you, if you have not had the pleasure of reading the other books in this series, then you need to this very second. Those books are utterly spectacular, and they will not only introduce you to a world of characters you will never want to leave, but they are truly some of the most exceptional books I have ever read. This book is the last in that series of interconnected stand-alones, and let me tell you, Kathryn Andrews brought this world and this story to them most fitting and fulfilling conclusion. I truly could not have asked for more.

One of my favorite aspects of this series and any book that this author writes is the way that she makes it so vivid and beautiful to experience. She transports you to some amazing places that are truly memorable and completely encapsulating. She makes every location feel so real. (And so many of them are real, and let me tell you, I need to go to those places as soon as humanly possible.) She makes every moment feel like you’re right in the middle of it. She brings out so many exceptional nuances and dynamics with these characters that mean everything. She gives you food. She gives you magic. She gives you feels and romance and the little things that really are the big things. She gives you love. She gives you everything.

Lessons in Lemonade was just the best. I loved every single word of Meg and Jack’s story together. I loved that it was very much of friends to lovers story. I loved that these characters both had to face some very tough decisions and choices that showed so many truths about them. I loved that everything they share together made them question everything they thought they knew and everything they thought they wanted. I loved that them being together made all the difference and truly changed everything. I was completely entranced with their connection and their fierce chemistry together. The rightness of the two them enveloped me from the start, and honestly I just spent all of this book LOVING what I was getting with them and eager for more of it all.

From the very start, Kathryn Andrews showed me the literal goodness of the two of them. She showed me their spark. She showed me where it all started for them. She let me be a part of the foundation and start of their friendship, and she let me be there when it crossed over into something more. She let me struggle with these characters with the challenges they faced, both individually and together. She let me understand them both on the deepest of levels. She let me get them, she let me peel back their layers so I completely understood why everything was happening the way it was. She put me there in the thick of it as the events of this story took these characters to places they never thought they’d be. She gave me it all with Meg and Jack, and it truly was everything.

Meg is literal charm and then some. She sweet, she is good, she is smart, and she is determined to live a life that feels good and right to her. She is a restaurant owner and chef who knows her way around the kitchen, and she is someone who knows what she wants. Or at least she thinks she does. She is also a woman who has been through a lot, and has the strength and tenacity to show for it. She is a woman who knows the power of food, and this book will exemplify that with her in spades.

Seeing her world get turned upside down by the seriously heart melting Jack, seeing how their relationship makes her rethink everything she thought she knew and felt. Getting to be with her as she navigated the wonderfully complicated and authentic dynamics this book’s events presented her was nothing short of spectacular. It was real, it was consuming, and it was beyond emotional and meaningful. I love and respect that girl with my whole heart for so many reasons, and honestly I just wish I could spend all the time in the world with er. Kathryn Andrews created a very memorable, authentic, and dynamic woman who is seriously easy to love. She is just the best.

Jack is a good guy. You inherently know that from the very first time you meet him. He is good, he is funny and charming in his own distinctive way, and he is not to be ignored. I loved that he was a flirt and force to be reckoned with in his own very memorable way that was never too much. He was always just enough. He was always more. That man is pure goodness. He has a heart of gold that is on his sleeve ready to feel it all. He is a man who gives it his all no matter what. He is also a man who has his entire world turned upside down in this book, and must face many life changing decisions.

What I loved about Jack was that through it all he stayed true to himself. He never wavered. And even in those moments when it looked like he did, or where he second guessed himself, he was still him. He was still the good guy who gave it his all. He was still the man who would do anything for his friends and family. He was the guy who put it all on the line when it really mattered. He was the man who saw the glass half full, even when the world threatened to break that glass to pieces. He was the best. Getting to be with him through the dark moments, through the bright ones, and through every unforgettable moment in between was phenomenal. It just made me love him more. I think it’s honestly impossible to not love Jack. He is just the best.

let me tell you that this story will take ahold of you with all that it has, and it will blow you away with the emotion, the meaning, and just everything you get with these characters. There will be moments in this story that will make you laugh, moments that will make you melt and swoon with the romance and the heartfelt moments that these characters share. there will be moments that hurt your heart and bring tears to your eyes for these characters and what they go through. There will be moments where you might want to shake them silly because of what’s happening, but all the while you’ll completely understand the whys behind it all. There will be moments in this book that will turn your world upside down just like it does to these characters.

And through it all, you will love it. You will love it with your whole heart and you will know, without a doubt, that you are reading a truly special and incredible story.

In this book, Meg and Jack are both handed some pretty sour lemons, but through every second of their unforgettable story you get to see how they squeeze and twist and mold those lemons into something resembling lemonade. And that lemonade? It just might be the most perfect thing you’ve ever had the chance to get.

And it’ll taste so so good. Trust me.

Lessons in Lemonade is hands down one of the best books I have ever read, and it is definitely one of my top favorites by this author. This is such a special story to me. It was so emotionally meaningful, and it was the perfect way to say goodbye to a world of characters that have stolen my heart for years. It was love and food and connection personified. It was a beautiful and emotional story of what could be, and it truly was magical with what I got with Meg and Jack. Those two are something special. They are the best. They are right and more and just everything.

I am telling you, you will love them. You will love them fiercely with your whole heart, and you will want and need everything with them. You will love the lessons, you will sure as hell love the lemonade, and you’ll even love the lemons that come their way. You will love it all. Kathryn Andrews thoughtfully crafted and created a story that is truly unlike any other, and that will give you it all.

So are you ready? Are you ready for the literal amazingness that is this book? Well take yourself a seat. Get yourself a glass. Give yourself a heavy pour of that sweet sweet lemonade, and be ready to experience the incredible, emotional, beautifully breathtaking Lessons in Lemonade.

Kathryn Andrews loves stories that end with a happily ever after. She started writing at age seven and never stopped. Kathryn is an Amazon Bestseller for her much loved Hale Brothers Series and is a chi-lit, contemporary romance, and new adult writer. 
Kathryn graduated from the University of South Florida with degrees in Biology and Chemistry, and currently lives in Tampa, Florida. She spends her days as a sales director for a medical device company and her nights lost in her love of fictional characters.
When Kathryn is not crafting beautiful worlds that incorporate some of her most favorite real life places, she can be found hanging out with her husband and two young sons, while drinking iced coffee and enjoying the sun. To find out more about Kathryn and her novels, visit: www.kandrewsauthor.com

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