Thumbs up to Jennie for finally stepping away from all the people who want to control her. Unfortunately, in some ways, she's back in the small town where she grew up so everyone has something to say about her. She, however, is working hard and rebuilding her life= just like Rick, who is home after suffering an injury due to an IED. These two are made for each other but you know there's going to be an irritant, in this case, Rick's sister Cricket. I wanted to tell Cricket to stuff it but that would have lessened the tension. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a pleasant read with two good characters (and Cricket!).

I love Car Brown books they are always so good! Loved the settings and characters and the title fits the book perfectly because it was small town that had so many rumors!

Great Carolyn Brown story! I love her books. Her depictions of small town life are so dead on, it's a joy to read. I recommend her books to people that read Debbie Macomber and Sherryl Woods.

This book is a fun story about the joys of small towns and the rumors that can move through faster than you'd ever believe. Jennie Sue arrives home on a bus (gasp!) and is ready to start a new life for herself. To her mother's dismay, it does not involve the high society plans and groups that she is a part of herself. Jennie Sue rolls up her sleeves and paves her own way. There is some nice humor in this book, a few bittersweet moments, and a lot of friends.

After a failed marriage and still born baby, Jennie Sue returns to her hometown in Texas with rumors and speculation from the community running rampant. As the daughter of the affluent Baker family, Jennie Sue has expectations from her mother to marry rich and join her club, the Sweetwater Belles. Jennie Sue has other plans, however, as her disastrous first marriage taught her that money isn't everything. Jennie Sue decides to live with and clean the homes of her mother's arch nemesis and turns the rumor mill in town into a frenzy. She discovers that what she values and what is important to her parents are very different things and that love, success and happiness are all possible after tragedy strikes. The book reminds me of the small town that I grew up in and how hard it is to overcome people's perceptions and how funny and absurd gossip can sometimes be.

Absolutely Wonderful! Everything about this author is amazing and this book does not let you down. Great story, characters and overall HEA!! Can't wait for more from Carolyn Brown!

**3.5 Stars**

It's been awhile since I've read a book by Carolyn Brown and I'm glad I had the chance to read this one. The book is set in a small town so it has the quirky characters that you typically see. It's a romance, but it focuses more on Jennie Sue building her life back up which I appreciate though I would have like a little more on Rick since I liked his character a lot. I liked most of the characters although Cricket did get on my nerves for 2/3 of the novel. I wouldn't say this is a quick or super exciting read, but I enjoyed it. It's perfect for a lazy afternoon or for a day at the beach.

3.25 Give Them Something to Talk About Stars
* * * 1/4
Before Social Media, before the Internet and before Cell phones, there was a way towns entertained themselves with hot gossip...Yes, back in the day the OG way to spread rumor was the Party-line...
What you say, what the heck was that...It was a land line phone where people shared the use of the line. You could pick up the receiver and hear other conversations happening by those you were sharing it... so listening in was a thing.

Oh, there were other way of spreading the word...
Simply taking what you heard in church, the barber shop or diner and adding your own take on it and then told your best friend.

Carolyn Brown uses her crafting to address this small town use of gossip as their main source of entertainment.

All her life, Jennie Sue Baker tried to please her mother and father. No matter how much she did what her mother wanted, it was never enough. She was taught to be almost a Stepford wife by her mother, a mother who had learned this behavior from her own mother and the mother before her.
The result was a young girl who was never was able to be herself. She was the perfect society woman, married off and moved away.

Now she is back to the town where she grew up. She has divorced her lying, cheating, thieving fugitive of a husband. During her marriage, this man was so controlling, he had her isolated and tasked with keeping the house in immaculate order. When Jennie Sue shared important information with the man, he upped and left her high and dry.

She is back home and it only takes a day or two for Jennie to see living at home with her mother's attitude about how Jennie Sue looks, eats and behaves will not work. Her mother is blocking the father giving Jennie Sue a position in the family business...Women do not work.

Well, Jennie Sue tells her "delicate" mother she is leaving. She will work and figure out her life. As she sits in the town's diner, she runs into one of the elder women of the town. She is thrilled to see Jennie Sue and when a housecleaning job with lodging is offered, Jennie Sue sees it as a way to give herself some breathing room to write her resume, do some interviewing and save some money. She snaps it up and is thrilled to help out these women.

Rick Lawson is another home town boy who has returned. He served and was a career military guy until an IED took that option away. With serious scars on his body and face, he has had to adjust to what was taken away. He has lived with his sister on the family farm running the produce business. He also does the mobile library. This is all very different from the high school sports star.

So here we have these two crossing paths and each time, there is a pull to see more of each other. This causes all sorts of rumors and gossip. Jennie Sue is already dealing with the fallout of her cleaning, working at a bookstore and living over the garage of her mother's mortal enemies.

There is a lot happening with this tale; there is the budding romance with Rick and Jennie Sue, the hysterical times with the elder ladies and the realization by others that Jennie Sue is a real down home woman who was not the society pawn her mother made her be.

This story did take some turns which caused some concern. (view spoiler)

This is the third book of Brown's I have read and will not be the last. She has a lovely way of creating characters who are interesting and towns with quirks and wonderful communities.

A gifted copy was provided by Montlake Romance via NetGalley for an honest review.

The book did not surprise me at all. Everything I thought was happening did. I guess I am not a good reader of your romance authors and feel it would be unfair to judge this book on my opinion. I will say it was well written and the story was likeable. If you love romance and giddy happy books this one is for you! Just was not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for review.
I love to read small town feel good books when I need a break from my detective and mystery books.
I love the 2 old ladies in this book and I want to be just like them in a few years!!
Very enjoyable book.

I loved this book! This is the third, I think, book by Carolyn Brown I've read and I've loved every one of them. Jennie Sue and her friends were a great cast of characters and Ms. Brown brings you close to them in a way that most writers can't. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves happy endings and a lot of southern mixed in. Now I need to go digging through her backlog and find a couple more to add to the ever growing/never reducing TBR list.

Thanks to NetGalley, Montlake Romance and Ms. Brown for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a masterpiece!
Ms. Brown writes about the good and bad in small towns and the fact that we can hold onto a perception for a long time,and even doubting it, are reluctant to let it go.
All the characters are realistic, some with good and bad qualities. Some are just good souls trying to get by. Most of them participate in the rumor mill, but don't take it seriously.
Just like life good and bad things happen and the characters, just like us, are defined by the way they handle them.
Jennie Sue was not the girl she appeared to be to her classmates, forced into a mold she didn't fit by her mother, who just followed 'tradition'. She's just barely surviving emotionally from the death of her daughter....her divorce....well, that seemed like release from a prison.
Injured Veteran Rick, just wants to keep the family farm together for himself and sister Cricket....but had loved Jennie Sue from afar ...since high school.
Oldsters Lettie, Nadine and Amos are a hoot and add spice that keeps you turning the pages.
These characters and a few more are woven into Jennie Sue and Rick's love story, as well as the real reason the book will be a best seller.......Jennie Sue finding herself and her inner strength before moving onto the relationship she desires with Rick.
I read it all in one day. I was so disappointed to get to the end, I want more, please.
I requested and was granted a NetGalley ARC, much to my delight.

I am always up for any Carolyn Brown read. No one can portray smalltown characters like she can, and she draws me into her town and her story 100% of the time. I cannot recommend this one enough.

A fast paced entertaining sweet read. Brown depicts a West Texas small town where gossip is the main occupation. Residents don't need social media, they just use the tell someone a story routine. The author delivers a community with colorful characters. My favorites were the crusty, elderly Lettie and Nadine. They carried the story in so many places and were absolutely delightful. Reading this book will also make you hungry as food was mentioned at least once every other page. Don't miss out on this rumor: read the book.

Small towns are rife with gossip. It is the oxygen that feeds a fire and rather than put it out the people in this town prefer to fan the flames.
Jenny Sue and Rick are from Bloom, Texas, but from different sides of the track. They are both kind, loving, sweet people who have suffered terribly. Rick is a Veteran who is scarred both physically and emotionally. Jenny Sue grew up with a blue blood cold fish of a mother who never thought her daughter was good enough, pretty enough or smart enough to meet her standards. She even married a man she didn't truly love because he pleased her cold cold mother. He then left her broke, alone, pregnant feeling lower than anyone ever should.
Jenny returns to Bloom on the bus, to the horror of her mother and finally decides to live the life she wants that does not include being a trophy wife, mean spirited and to forge her own path. Rick is convinced that he isn't rich enough, good enough, smart enough or deserving enough. The hysterically funny, sweet and very odd towns people help her to find herself and ultimately each other.

I absolutely adored this very sweet book. Order your copy now!!

A very good romance with a great depition of the small town life. I love the way it's written and the characters.
It's an easy and entertaining read.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Montlake Romance and Netgalley for this ARC

Carolyn Brown couldn't write a bad story if she tried. Small Town Rumors hits every note just right when it comes to small town living. Jennie Sue Baker is a protag I related to. Love this book!

Small Town Rumors is such a good book. I loved the plot. The author has depicted small town life perfectly. I hope to read more of Ms. Brown’s work in te future. I highly recommend this book.

Carolyn Brown can write a funny book. It had me laughing all the way through.
When Jennie Sue Baker comes back to her small town, divorced, broke and humiliated,
the rumor mill starts to run wild. The Bakers are the top of society in their small town
and Jennie Sue's mother may be the most blue blood, elitist woman in town. Jennie Sue
is nothing like her mother which is where her problems start, add in her attraction to
a good looking, good guy farmer, that is not nearly in her families social circle and that
causes more problems. She befriends two hilarious old maids who take her under their
wing and poor Jennie Sue just can't stay out of trouble. The book is well written and very
entertaining. I highly recommend reading Small Town Rumors.

A cute read. I would recommend it to people who like chick lit or quick reads. It was written well romance and now I want to read the next novel.