Thanks #NetGalley #Montlake for a complimentary e ARC of #TheDevineDoughnutShop upon my request. All opinions are my own.

Three women (two sisters and a cousin) own and operate the Devine Doughnut Shop, a popular gathering place for locals. Each of the women faces personal challenges as they also struggle to keep the family business solvent. One day, a charming developer arrives in town and offers to buy the shop (and the grandmother’s secret recipe) and expand the shop into a national chain.

If you love small towns, family drama, entrepreneurial women, and a slow-burn romance, grab a pastry and enjoy this warmhearted women’s fiction story.

The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn Brown is another close look at Texan women. Two sisters and a cousin continue running the family doughnut shop as the three generations before them. The women are different in personalities but the same in working hard, making their way in life and sticking together as family. There is the wayward teenager, but she has time to straighten up while she is working hard.

For Grace Dalton, her sister, Sarah, and her cousin Macy the Devine Doughnut shop has all the drama that is needed but then their lives have some too. Some of the family drama could have been avoided but that is the way it often is in families. It is the way that these women stick together and their resilience that makes the story so readable. While there is romance it is not overly done, neither is the thought of selling the secret family recipe. The focus is on the women, how they handle it all and the decisions that they make.

Carolyn Brown is excellent at pulling you into the characters’ lives, making you root for them all along the story way. She does it once again for Grace, Sarah and Macy.

An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Carolyn Brown always comes through with a feel good book when I need it. This is the story of two sisters and a cousin as they deal with life, love, and the family legacy- The Devine Donut shop.

Thank you to Montlake and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

It's always a treat to read a book from Carolyn Brown. This one is a bit more on the light-hearted side, but still revolves around family relationships and small-town living and perhaps a bit of divine intervention. It was a welcome change after reading a number of books that involved tragic events. Just be warned that you may be tempted to rush off to the nearest bakery! Thanks so much to NetGalley and Montlake for a copy to read and review.

Four generations of Dalton women have held the secret recipe and run the Devine Donuts aka Double D in small town Devine, TX. They’ve shared laughter, tears, private pains, and a tough triumph to hang in there. Now, Grace, Sarah, Macy, and young Audrey, with a newcomer to their midst, Raelyn are the current Daltons to face big developers, small town gossip, teen angst, broken hearts, sisterhood, and a little romance.

Wild Sarah is the oldest Dalton sister and she’s kicked up her heels and given ‘em something to talk about for years, but that was to cover her private resentment to have to return to Devine after her mama died and pick up the reins right when her sister got herself into trouble with a bad boy who broke her heart. Deep down in her heart, she’s ready to settle down with a loving man and start a family.

Grace, the younger sister, made a teenage mistake and ended up raising Audrey without her runaway bad boy Jake, and now she’s the mainstay of the family and the doughnut shop. Her daughter is making her own big mistakes and Grace is using tough love to waking Audrey up to the truth of her ‘popular friends’ and mean girl behavior that thinks she’s entitled to wealth and a cushy life. What she hadn’t counted on was pesky feelings of attractions for the big businessman developer who wants her to sell shop and property, Travis Butler.

Macy is a Dalton cousin like a sister who seems to have the happily ever after all sewn up with her good man, Neal. But if something sounds too good to be true… then hell hath no fury Texas-style.

Audrey knows best over her behind the times mama and aunts and she’s in the popular crowd if she can keep her friends happy and not knowing her mom took in her geeky former bestie after Raelyn was homeless when her gran died and mom skipped town, gah! Slave in the donut shop through her spring break all because she covered for her friends by getting caught with their booze and cigs? But, maybe she doesn’t know everything and it takes a hard fall to discover this while she’s young.

Loved the multi-generational focus on family and sisterhood and life in this light, heartwarming small town women’s fic.

I enjoyed this sweet generational tale by a beloved author. This is a heartwarming story about a family (2 sisters and a cousin) who run the family doughnut shop in Devine, Texas. The shop has been in the family for generations and is very popular.

When relationship troubles cause drama for the women, the family bands together. However, change is inevitable, and the trio start to question the future of the shop.

The Devine Doughnut Shop is a story about a small-town doughnut shop run by 3 women with multigenerational ties to the store and the town. They haven't had a lot of luck with love, but they always have each other. They support each other as they overcome heartache and take a chance at forging a new future for themselves.

This story does have romance as one of its concepts but it's more of a story of how the women deal with a particularly bad time in all of their lives. I really like how the women worked together to solve issues, but they also took time to think about their feelings and motivations. Honestly, these women seemed very real, and I can imagine them being lovely to get to know. Grace gets most of the romance in the story because Travis enters the story when he tries to buy the doughnut shop. They spend time together and the reader gets to see how they fall in love. I thought that Grace's daughter, Audrey, was a typical teenager. The author gave her a nice redemption arc. Macy and Sarah start out the story in very different places romantically. I enjoyed how the author chose to have the women learn and grow. The fact that all of the women find a happily ever after at the end is really nice.

I might be a touch bloodthirsty, but I really wanted to see the bad guys get more of a beat down. Yeah, I know that the point was that the small-town would never let them forget what they did but that wasn't good enough. I can't say more because I don't want spoilers. The other thing that bothered me was that the people in the town sometimes knew things that they could not possibly know. For example, if someone is speeding out of town in their car, how does anyone know the reason they are speeding out of town? I just can't imagine that the bad guy would stop and announce all of the bad things that led to the speeding (I am so dancing around this issue because it's a major plot point). Now, if I assume the town is psychic or something then how did the bullies not get caught ages ago when they were doing their evil deeds? Yes, I'm being extra picky.

If you are looking for a clean book about a small-town family and their journeys to find love, you have to read this. I will definitely read more from this author in the future (that was a given since I'm a bit of a fan girl already).

This was cute. I like small-town stories, particularly those that weave together small town romance and small town families. I have young children but I definitely can see bits of this in my future.
I don't think this book is earth shattering. It moves pretty slow. But its cute and I like the bakery backstory, so for me its good and doable.

A Carolyn Brown book where donuts are featured front and center equals pure bliss.
Three women drank out the most delicious donuts but they’re unlucky in love. Will they completely give up or give love on more try?
I waited and waited for Audrey’s attitude to Improve and read on to see what the ladies’ ultimate decision about the shop would be.
The funniest scene involved Cyclone Macy giving the want for to two shysters who deserved much more.
There’s lots of fakes and phonies in this story but in true CB fashion there’s a steady theme of simplicity, family, love, and changes.
It’s a Devine read.

The Devine Doughnut Shop written by Carolyn Brown was so heart warming, and tasty. I have never read a book by Carolyn Brown before, but this was a perfect book to start off a new author. I instantly fell in love with this story, the characters just walked right into my heart. This book was so cute, tasty, heart warming, family oriented, and overall a lovely story. At times, this book broke my heart, I just can't describe it, like it broke my heart, spit my heart out, and pieced it right back together all on the same page. The cover is so so beautiful. I was instantly hooked from the very first page, and couldn't put it down until the very end. Neither of these characters were perfect in any way, but they were all perfect in their own ways. The Devine Doughnut Shop is a heart warming story about family, friendship, resilience, faith, and romance. The sassy twang the characters had were so adorable. Please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book, but DO NOT read it on an empty stomach, all the mentions of doughnuts made me want to run to the local doughnut shop and buy a dozen of every doughnut they have, the only one that didn't make me hungry was the maple one. Every sweet tooth deserves a sweet and yummy book.

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND MONTLAKE FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!

Grace Dalton, her sister, Sarah, and their cousin, Macy are the fourth generation to run the Double D, The Devine Doughnut Shop, that is a sweet family legacy in their small Texas town. Grace, Sarah, and Macy keep their great grandmother's recipe secret and uphold the shop's tradition as a coffee klutch for sharing local gossip, advice, and woes. But, drama also brews behind the counter as well. Grace, Macy, and Sarah aren't allowed to share their great grandmothers secret doughnut recipe with anyone, everyone that steps foot into the doughnut shop is supposed to guess what the secret could be, but no one ever really knows the true answer. I loved getting to know Sarah, Grace, and Macy in this beautiful book. These girls go through so many doughnuts in just one day, it's insane, after reading this book it made me think twice about running my own doughnut shop, but knowing myself, none of the doughnuts would make it to the display case. Grace, Macy, and Sarah were sassy, funny, adorable, and lovable characters. All three of them have that sassy Texas twang.

Grace is a single mother, struggling with an unruly teenage daughter. Grace swore she would never get pregnant at such a young age, but she did, her boyfriend at the time decided to leave a note on Grace's car saying he wasn't ready to be a father and just walked away before their daughter, Audrey was born. If you have a teenage daughter, or if you were a teenage daughter you can relate to this book so so much. Audrey got caught with whiskey and cigarettes in her contraband for her so called "friends", Audrey wants to be the popular girl in school, but she decided to hangout with the wrong group of girls, Audrey got suspended from school, and for her consequences Audrey is to work in the doughnut shop with Grace, Macy, and Sarah, waking up at three in the morning during her spring break. Audrey was sweet and sassy, I actually adored her, but she needed to be put into her place, which her mother Grace did. Sarah is heartbroken and has completely sworn off love, after she caught her "boyfriend" married with another woman.

Macy's impending wedding has an unexpected hitch, which I am totally shocked and did not see that coming at all. Travis Butler, a charming developer has arrived in Devine, Texas with a handsome smile and a checkbook, Travis wants to buy The Devine Doughnut Shop, expose the recipe, and expand it nationally. Grace, Macy, and Sarah promised their great grandmother before she passed away that they would never sell the doughnut shop. With their relationships in flux, their beloved heritage up for grabs, and their future in the air, it's amazing what determination, sass, a promise of romance, and a warm maple doughnut can do to change hearts and minds. This book was so fun to read, it honestly left a warm smile on my face. As much as I loved this book, I can't recommend it enough, everyone please do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this beautiful and heart warming book. So many parts shocked me, I didn't even see them coming, but the end of this book truly made up for it all. Ugh, it was just an amazing story, I left some important things out of this review, because I didn't want to spoil the entire book.

I suppose I should have lowered my expectations for this book but I got excited with the doughnut shop description. Instead, I found this a bit preachy and that the story languished so much! I will say, if you like women's lit with religious overtones, this might be for you. Hope you have better luck.

The Devine Doughnut Shop comes out next week on February 14, 2023, and you can purchase HERE.

"Where's the nearest convent or boot amp?" Grace Dalton stormed into the kitchen of the Devine Doughnut Shop that Friday morning. "This daughter of mine needs to spend some time in whichever one that will take her."

I really loved this small town read by Carolyn Brown about a small doughnut shop owned by two sisters and their cousinin a small texas town. I enjoyed this book so much and I can't wait to read more by Carolyn in the future. :)

This book is a delightful read. I loved every moment with Grace, Sarah, Macy, Audrey, Raelene, & Beezy. I enjoyed the generational/family aspect of it. I even enjoyed reading about Crystal and Kelsey getting what they deserved for their actions. The Panama City Beach vacation made me long to breath in the salty air and have sand between my toes. PCB is our home away from home. Shell Island and renting a pontoon boat is our favorite part of our time there. This book just made me smile so big!!

Thank you, Netgalley and Montlake for this e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

I love the "down home" aspect of the books written by Carolyn Brown. Her characters are usually from really small towns and they always have a Southern accent (at least in my head). The Devine Doughnut Shop is owned and run by two sisters and their cousin. They have their own secret recipe for doughnuts, of which they run out of frequently. What they don't run out of is man problems and family problems. There is a teenage daughter of one of the women that is really trying their patience. It's a toss up between her being the bully and her being bullied. Those women are fierce, though, and they will certainly take care of the problem.

There are cheating men in this book, but there's also a good one (at least one...). This is mostly women's fiction with a slice of romance served with it. I dare you to read this delightful story and not yearn for a doughnut!

Thanks to Montlake and NetGalley for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

EXCERPT: 'Where's the nearest convent or bootcamp?' Grace Dalton stormed into the kitchen of the Devine Doughnut Shop that Friday morning. 'That daughter of mine needs to spend some time in whichever one that will take her.'
'What has Audrey done now?' Grace's younger sister, Sarah, asked.
She sent me a text last night after I'd gone to bed and said that she had been suspended for today,' Grace answered as she slipped a bibbed apron over her head and tied the strings in the back. She tucked her hair up into a net and moved over to the sink to wash her hands.
Their cousin Macy, who was a partner in the doughnut shop, set the bowls up on the counter to get the dough made and rising. 'Good Lord! What did she do?'
Grace flipped the hot doughnuts into a bowl of powdered sugar glaze, turned them over, and set them out on a different rack to cool. 'She got caught with a pack of cigarettes and one of those little sample bottles of whisky at school. When she goes back after spring break, she gets to spend two days in the in-school suspension building. I'm paying for your raising, Sarah June, not mine. I was the good child.'

ABOUT 'THE DEVINE DOUGHNUT SHOP': For Grace Dalton, her sister, Sarah, and her cousin Macy, the Devine Doughnut Shop is a sweet family legacy and a landmark in their Texas town. As the fourth generation to run the Double D, they keep their great-grandmother’s recipe secret and uphold the shop’s tradition as a coffee klatch for sharing local gossip, advice, and woes. But drama brews behind the counter, too.

Grace is a single mother struggling with an unruly teenage daughter. Heartbroken Sarah has sworn off love. Macy’s impending wedding has an unexpected hitch. And now charming developer Travis Butler has arrived in Devine with a checkbook and a handsome smile. He wants to buy the shop, expand it nationally, and boost the economy of a town divided by the prospect.

With the family’s relationships in flux, their beloved heritage up for grabs, and their future in the air, it’s amazing what determination, sass, a promise of romance, and a warm maple doughnut can do to change hearts and minds.

MY THOUGHTS: I want a maple doughnut - more than one in fact. I am glad we don't have a decent doughnut shop in our town or I would have been down there every morning buying a dozen to get me through the day.

Anyone who has a teenage daughter, or who has ever been a teenage daughter, is going to relate to this read. Audrey is at that age where being popular is the most important thing in her life. Her mother neither likes nor approves of her friends and Audrey is certain her mother is out to ruin her street cred.

The relationship between Grace and her daughter had me chuckling, recalling similar battles between my mother and myself. I loved the relationship between Grace, her sister Sarah and their cousin Macy. The saying goes that it takes a village to raise a child, but in this case it just takes a close knit family. I love the way these three support one another and indulge their love of ice-cream in times of crisis.

These characters are all smart, resilient and sassy. Carolyn Brown sure can write them.

This is a heartwarming story of family, friendship, faith and romance that kept me smiling throughout.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.4

#TheDevineDoughnutShop #NetGalley

@carolynbrownbooks #montlake

T: @thecarolynbrown #Montlake

#christianfiction #contemporaryfiction #familydrama #friendship #romance #sliceoflife #smalltownfiction
#womensfiction

THE AUTHOR: Hi! I'm twenty five years old and movie star gorgeous. The camera added thirty plus years and a few wrinkles. Can't trust those cameras or mirrors either. Along with bathroom scales they are notorious liars! Honestly, I am the mother of three fantastic grown children who've made me laugh and given me more story ideas than I could ever write. My husband, Charles, is my strongest supporter and my best friend. He's even willing to eat fast food and help with the laundry while I finish one more chapter! Life is good and I am blessed!

Reading has been a passion since I was five years old and figured out those were words on book pages. As soon as my chubby little fingers found they could put words on a Big Chief tablet with a fat pencil, I was on my way. Writing joined reading in my list of passions. I will read anything from the back of the Cheerio's box to Faulkner and love every bit of it. In addition to reading I enjoy cooking, my family and the ocean. I love the Florida beaches. Listening to the ocean waves puts my writing brain into high gear.

I love writing romance because it's about emotions and relationships. Human nature hasn't changed a bit since Eve coveted the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Settings change. Plots change. Names change. Times change. But love is love and men and women have been falling in and out of it forever. Romance is about emotions: love, hate, anger, laughter... all of it. If I can make you laugh until your sides ache or grab a tissue then I've touched your emotions and accomplished what every writer sets out to do.

I got serious about writing when my third child was born and had her days and nights mixed up. I had to stay up all night anyway and it was very quiet so I invested in a spiral back notebook and sharpened a few pencils. The story that emerged has never sold but it's brought in enough rejection slips to put the Redwood Forest on the endangered list.

Folks ask me where I get my ideas. Three kids, fifteen grandchildren, two great grandchildren. Note: I was a very young grandmother! Life is a zoo around here when they all come home. In one Sunday afternoon there's enough ideas to keep me writing for years and years. Seriously, ideas pop up at the craziest times. When one sinks its roots into my mind, I have no choice but to write the story. And while I'm writing the characters peek over my shoulder and make sure I'm telling it right and not exaggerating too much. Pesky little devils, they are!

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Montlake via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn Brown for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

Grace her sister Sarah and their cousin Macy run the Divine doughnut stop. They are the fourth generation to do so. But they are getting tired of just working. Each has been burned by love. Can they they get a happy ever after ending. Sweet small town story

The Devine Doughnut shop is another utterly delightful and insightful novel by Carolyn Brown. Set in tiny Devine, Texas, the novel introduces us to 2 sisters, Grace (the eldest) and Sarah, as well as their cousin, Macy, Grace's teenage daughter, Audrey, and her used-to-be friend, Raelene, who was left homeless and penniless when her mom ran off with her boyfriend, and whom the sisters unofficially adopt. The setting is mainly the titular doughnut shop, inherited from their grandmother, making these three women the fourth generation to keep the popular establishment running. The fact that the delicious recipe is a long-held secret is what drives the plot forward, and it's the reason people cannot get enough of their doughnuts. The doughnut shop is open at the oddest hours, from 5:00 a.m. until noon, and is the hub of gossip in this small town--and gossip there is, in spades, not to mention the emotional angst these characters experience!

This is a truly a heartwarming novel about the importance of family, friendships, single parenthood, trust in their friendships and romantic relationships, and is jam-packed with so much sensible, sound advice on how to deal with all of life's trials and tribulations, that it's almost a how-to book--and I enjoyed every single minute of it. There is also a small dash of romance thrown in--showing up a little too late and a little too understated in the novel for this reader, which is the reason for my 4.5- rather than 5-star rating. Nevertheless, it's truly a gem of a read in women's fiction, and I doubt that there's a woman alive who won't find herself relating to at least one of the characters.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions stated are my own.

Carolyn Brown's books always make me smile and feel good. This one was no exception as it's uplifiting and heartwarming.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂
The owners of the Devine Doughnut Shop in Texas are thirty-something single mom Grace, her sister Sarah and their cousin Macy. All three rise each day at 3am to start baking the shop’s doughnuts that sell like hotcakes. The three owners aren’t having the best of luck but maybe that’s all about to change.

𝓜𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼
A light read with a very Texan vibe, there is lots of dialect and sweet tea with thoughts of finding the love of their lives, lessons to be learned and swindlers to be caught out. I enjoyed the easy banter and the characters that come into the doughnut shop, the family and the friends.

Thank you NetGalley and Carolyn Brown for the Arc of The Devine Doughnut Shop. This is my personal review.
Grace and Sarah are sisters and along with their cousin Macy run the family Devine Doughnut Shop together.
The book is an easy read and filled with family drama, friendship, romance and so much more. Each character brings so much to the story and builds a foundation for a book that will stay with me after reading it for a long time.
The emotion the author was able to bring out as I read the book was done perfectly. The small town setting was just the right place for this to be set.