This book portrays a dangerous situation that seems to have been taken directly from current headlines. Katie McGrath, a first grade teacher, finds herself caught in the middle of a school shooting. Sharon Sala realistically displays the fears and the heroism that teachers display during this unimaginable situation.

Katie is shot several times while physically protecting a couple of students who were directly in the line of fire. It takes Katie a while to physically heal from her injuries. Unfortunately, it is harder, and takes longer, for her to recover from her emotional wounds. She has PTSD, constant flashbacks and difficulty sleeping. Thus, she is mentally unable return to the school where it all happened.

Katie finds a new teaching job in the small town of Borden’s Gap, Tennessee. However, she is unsure if she will be able to ever teach again. But, she is determined to overcome her fears and her flashbacks in order to continue working in her dream job.

Katie rents a home across the street from Sam Youngblood who is the police chief of this small town. He is raising his twins alone since his wife dies in childbirth. His girls are first graders who just happen to be in Katie’s class.

We can tell from the very beginning of the book that Sam and Katie are “soul mates.” However their romance is slow- moving because they both have more important priorities. Katie is struggling with the emotional aftermath of her wounds and her PTSD. And, Sam needs to be there for his young daughter whenever he is home. This is one of the things I love about these characters. They are mature and unselfish enough to understand that they have more important issues than romance. Actually, I found this even more romantic.

I love that Sharon Sala authentically depicts life in the average classroom in a regular elementary school. She also actually realistically portrays the job of a teacher and demonstrates the importance she plays in recognizing issues in her students’ lives. I am a retired elementary school teacher. It is nice to read a story where the author understands and highlights the heroism, the skills and the expertise that is necessary to be an educator.

It has been a good long while since I’ve read a Sharon Sala novel. I loved her in my 20’s and this synopsis struck a chord. I’ll admit that I got a little bit more than I bargained for as school shootings aren’t my favorite topic but the author gave enough details and insights into Katie’s thoughts without delivering too much blood and gore. I became invested in Katie and wanted to see her succeed and thrive after all of her life’s struggles. What took a little bit of getting used to and I’ll admit, I didn’t love, was the perspective changes. I didn’t care for her ex-fiance’s story line. He was a schmuck and I didn’t need to see where his life’s choices led him. I can’t remember if this is a constant trait of Sharon Sala’s but be warned. If you’re like me and want one perspective, you’ll be reading through the eyes of a few characters in this novel. I didn’t mind so much when it was only Katie and Sam as they are the two main characters.

Despite that change in perspectives, I enjoyed this novel. I found it to be easy to read and as I said above I was invested in Katie finding her happiness. The language was a little old-fashioned and the pacing methodical but once I got used to those quirks I found it charming. Sam’s two six year old girls Evie and Beth were the highlights for me in this book. They were just adorable and their quirky way of speaking added to their uniqueness as twins. If you love small town romances you may want to pick up The Next Best Day. Redemption and happiness are sweet when the road leading to them is so rocky. Katie’s journey was hard but in the end she found her happily-ever-after! ❤️❤️❤️❣️

Triggers: PTSD, school shooting, murder, incest, physical and emotional violence.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

The Next Best Day is the first book in a spanking brand new series by Sharon Sala. The story begins with heartbreak and a terrible tragedy. I highly recommend a few tissues handy. Since this is a nation’s and a parent’s worst nightmare it was difficult not to shed a few tears as I read these intense scenes. From there the story lights up quite a bit as Katie McGrath makes a much needed move across country to Borden's Gap, Tennessee. While there is the subplot with the heartbreaker it was not important to Katie’s story.

School teachers and school workers along with police officers get a much needed thumbs up in this story. Borden's Gap, Tennessee is much like many small town in the South with both the good, the bad and the downright evil brought to light. It is a story of new beginnings, second chances, and justice served. Teacher Katie McGrath and Sheriff Sam Youngblood and daughters are the main characters of this book with many older and younger supporting characters that are just as loveable. Then I found it impossible not to fall in love with the Rhett Butler in this book!

The Next Best Day is such a fitting title to this story! A great start to hopefully a long running series.

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.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. My thanks goes to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for this opportunity.

Genre: Women's Fiction, Romance, General Fiction
Heat Level: Mild (almost closed door)
Language: Medium (just about every word is in there but not on every page)

I hope this book has some content warnings—nothing is too graphic but enough to trigger some people.

The two big events mentioned happen in the first chapter! I felt like I'd been run over by a truck and needed to take a breather to open the next chapter. Poor Katie! I felt for the girl! I picked it up again to see how Katie would manage and what choices she would make.

This book took me a minute to get use to reading because it's in omniscient POV. The transitions were clear for me, but I still had to shake my head to get into the rhythm. I also felt like I was following threads of some characters who I wasn't as vested in as much, but on the upside, I also didn't have to question what happened and these scenes were short to get me back to Katie and Sam.

I also felt like some clues were put out there and developed in ways I didn't expect. This could be seen as a negative or positive, depending if you—as the reader—classified the clue as a promise for the future or a twist when resolved. There was some info I wanted sooner. Such as her response when she confronts someone endangering a child in Borden's Gap.

Sam is darn-near perfect. But I think he had to be for Katie to learn to trust him. He worked for me as a love interest. Her ex—what a piece of work—wouldn't leave her alone. He also worked for me. I wondered what would happen with him and her—questions like: Will she talk to him again? Will she give him another chance? Who will she end up with?

Finally, I was expecting a book more similar to Debbie MacComber because of the blurb, but it's quite different. At times, I was overwhelmed.

I enjoyed it and would recommend it. But go in expecting some hard things.

Have you ever finished a book and wondered how can you truly describe how magnificent that book was? That's this book for me.

The beginning blew my mind. I had not expected the two life-changing events explained in the blurb to be what happened in this story. By the time I finished the first few chapters I was a complete mess. Let's just say my tissue box was going empty fast.

I don't usually struggle for words, but this book has done just that.

There was so much going on in this story. From being jilted at the altar to drugs, murder, a school shooting, abuse and that's just to name a few. There was also a sweet second chance romance for a single father and his adorable twin daughters, and a whole new beginning for a woman who has had her world torn apart on more than one occasion.

Sharon Sala is one of my favorite authors and I know when I pick up one of her books, I won't be disappointed. The writing in The Next Best Day is superb, the characters are funny and come to life right on the page. I laughed and I cried and I just know I will be thinking about this book for a very long time.

I've been reading this author for years as well as following her on social media. I can hear her voice as if she narrated this story. She wove in pieces of herself and her family...just magical.
This book is all light but to appreciate it you must survive the dark and survive this teacher did. Miss Katie had a rough start in life, then escaping a jerk, followed by a traumatic event in her school. I imagine every mother's nightmare.
Starting over in a small town she soon settles in, her first graders are a delight though there are some dark secrets among those children. She'll be forced to be their saviour again.
Her neighbours are the best thing to happen to her, a single dad and his 6 year old twins. Will she find love and healing in this delightful family?
I loved this story, the highs and lows, the towns people and wonderful location.
The story was healing for me and brought me great joy.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of The Next Best Day by Sharon Sala that I read and reviewed.
This was a sweet romance book by Sharon Sala that was very emotional in some parts. It was really sad reading about a school shooting and what the teacher in this book went through. I even found myself crying in some parts because it is so much like what is going on in the world what seems like every month.
The part that I was struggling with was with how Sala was also telling it by perspective of the snake that dumped Katie at the left her at the altar perspective too and what was going on with him and his life. I personally did not care how he screwed it up. It was kind of a strange twist in the book I thought that really did not add that much for me. I would have liked more going on with Katie then just not that stuff in the book.
Overall, this was a fast paced romance book that for me was very emotional.
The Next Best Day gets four out of five stars.

EXCERPT: Katie holed up in her apartment for the entire week that would have been her honeymoon. She slept away the shock, then ate away the rage, and ignored the phone calls from everyone but Lila. Those she took, only to reassure her best friend that she was still kicking. By the time she was ready to go back to Saguaro Elementary, she had her game face on.

It took that week of solitude to remind herself that, in the grand scheme of things, her heart had been broken, but nobody had died. She was tougher than some man's lies. She didn't need a man to take care of her. She didn't need anyone, ever again.

ABOUT 'THE NEXT BEST DAY': A fresh start for a young teacher to build the life she's dreamt of
A second chance at romance for a single dad
The warm and uplifting small-town community cheering them on

After two back-to-back life-changing events, first grade teacher Katie McGrath left Albuquerque for a fresh start in Borden's Gap, Tennessee. She is finally back in the classroom where she belongs, but it will take a little while for her to heal and feel truly like herself. She'll need to dig deep to find the courage it takes to try again—in life and in love—but with some help from her neighbor Sam Youngblood and his adorable daughters who bring her out of her shell, her future is looking brighter than she dared imagine.

MY THOUGHTS: The last thing I expected when I began The Next Best Day by Sharon Sala was that I would be reading about a drug cartel, familial abuse, and an elementary school shooting. This read was sure full of surprises! Not all of them pleasant.

I loved the main character, Katie. What a wonderfully inspiring teacher and person she is. And Sam is equally wonderful in his own way; a dedicated and loving father, a pillar of the community. I love the little town of Borden's Gap, Tennessee, that Katie moves to for her new start in life, and where Sam lives.

I didn't much like the storyline involving Mark and his wife. It was extraneous and detracted from the main story. It would have been enough just to hear from Lila that he didn't get his HEA. I didn't need a front row seat. Then, after having bits of Mark's story scattered throughout, it's never really finished off.

This is my first book by Sharon Sala, so I don't know if she routinely includes these violent episodes in her books. I was looking forward to a heartwarming small town story, which I got. But I was not expecting the violence, and it didn't sit well with me, and nor did it seem to gel with the rest of the book. Will I read more from this author? Yes, because I loved the Katie/Sam story. But if these random threads of violence are a trademark of Sala's, our relationship will be short lived.

⭐⭐⭐.4

#NetGalley

I: @sharonkaysala_ @sourcebookscasa

T: @SourcebooksCasa

THE AUTHOR: As a farmer's daughter, and then for many years a farmer's wife, Sharon Sala began writing because she hated her job, but it was the love of the craft that kept her writing. Her first attempts were stuffed under her bed to be forgotten in the hustle and bustle of life with a growing family. It wasn’t until the tragic losses of two close family members that she vowed to follow through on her earlier dreams of writing. She joined writers groups and attended conferences to learn the craft.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Sourcebooks, Casablanca, via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Next Best Day by Sharon Sala 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 is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

The Next Best Day by Sharon Sala is an emotional story about Katie McGrath, a young first grade school teacher and small town police cheif Sam Youngblood. I was very emotional reading this book and was crying in chapter two! It was hard for me to put the book down. Sharon Sala has a way of drawing you into the story quickly and then making you wish that the story would continue when it’s over. I loved this book. It’s one that I will read again and again.

The Next Best Day was Sala at her best! She has the perfect formula for keeping you intrigued with suspense and drama but the absolute perfect love story. Katie has had the worst thrown at her her entire life and to finally find love with Sam was just heartwarming. Evie and Beth were so adorable and I loved little Rhett Butler. The product placement of “Dinah McCall” aka Sala, made me chuckle! There was a lot of bad guys and crime/drama which added to the story but often times seemed overkill. Hitmen, drugs, school shootings, drunks and child molestation. I loved it

What a wonderful story. Katie had a rough upbringng as she was in foster care her whole life. When a life threatening event happened at her school leaving her hurt and shaken, she knew she had to change her life. She moved to a small town and started over. Being in a small town is funny in some ways and all the single men asked her out, but she wasn''t ready to date. When she was ready the police cheif and neighbor was the perfect man for her. I loved his twin daughters. They were so cute and joined at the hip for everything. The story showed an emotional women who knew her worth and just needed to find a way to let it out. The town embraced her and she knew it was the perfect place for her.
I got this story from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

A new ‘family feeling” love story by one of my favorite authors. Katie McGrath has only known life as a foster child, a life with very little love, but now she is to be married. The morning of her wedding disaster strikes and the marriage is off. Her life as a teacher and her students are everything to her, but when she no longer feels safe at school, it is time to make a change. She accepts a teaching job in a small town and hopes for a new beginning. Meeting the local police chief and single dad, Sam, and his twin daughters, Beth and Evie bring such joy to her life. She has never felt as if she is enough, but will she be enough for them? She doesn’t want to be known as the jilted bride or the woman who survived tragedy, but as a woman who is loved. Will Katie find her place in Borden’s Gap and discover the next best days of her life? The heart-warming story, the small-town characters and the adorable twins made me smile, laugh and cry. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (paytonpuppy)

The next best day will steal your heart. The characters will warm your heart with their life story. You'll enjoy traveling the road they take to heal and find their happiness.

This book gave me a better appreciation for teachers. So many of the terrible things that occur in our world and especially in schools are covered. These have lasting effects on many people. It is easy for us to move on from the horrible things while those involved continue to suffer. A sweet romance with twin girls to add delightful lightness. Heartwarming and heartbreaking. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. I am eager to read more by this author.

The Next Best Day is the story of Katie McGrath. She is a first-grade teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The story begins on the morning of her wedding day. She wakes up so happy for her wedding day to begin. As she prepares at the wedding chapel, she gets a call from her fiancé, Mark. As she excitedly talks to him about the day, he gives her bad news. He eloped the night before and is now married to Megan his boss' daughter. Devastated, she tells her friends and the people who have come there will not be a wedding day today and to take their gifts with them as they leave. She takes the week that was to be her honeymoon to be by herself to deal with betrayal and loss.

Six weeks later after returning to school she is walking the children to the lunchroom when she hears popping sounds in another part of the building. She gets her students into a classroom but has to go back for two boys that got separated as they ran for safety. She runs back to them and runs down the hallway back to the classroom. She yanks up one of the fallen boys and tells the other to run, but a bullet hits the floor near her and then hits her. she falls on top of the boys to protect them and tells them to not make any sounds, don't move and that she loves them.

Katie awakens in a hospital room several days later but asks if the boys are safe. After leaving the hospital she returns home to recover but she is suffering from PTSD and jumps from loud noises as well as having recurring nightmares. Katie is invited back to school for an award for her bravery, and to show the children she is doing well. But she really isn't. At the school she realizes she cannot return to the school for the next year. Katie sends out her resume electronically to new schools and does interviews online. She gets an offer from a school in a small town in Borden's Gap, Tennessee. Katie packs up and moves leaving her best friend Lila behind. Ready for a change in a town where no one knows about her two life changing events.

There is more to Katie's life than what she shares with others. Katie hasn’t had an easy life, she was abandoned as a newborn baby, she grew up in foster care, in addition to her broken relationship and the canceled wedding.

Katie is still suffering from PTSD, she continues to have nightmares. Sam Youngblood, her neighbor across the street, is the father of twin girls and is the local police chief, he offers his support and gives Katie his phone number. Katie is anxious on her first day of school, and everything goes well. Katie is impressed by the people in the small town, slowly Katie starts to heal, thanks to two sweet little girls and their handsome father.

There are many more interactions with the former fiancé and her family as well as things that Katie is a part of that show what an incredible young woman she is.

I have to say this was a wonderful story about a woman who has had many hardships in life but had a spectacular upbeat attitude in spite of everything. It touched my heart and made me thankful for all I have.

This is my first book by Sharon Sala. I really liked the writing, there was so much going on, building to a fantastic conclusion.

A story that sadly relates to the horrific times of today. Katie has had a hard life, but never lets her past define her and what her future will be. She was stood up at the altar and nearly lost her life saving her two 1st grade students from a school shooter. Now suffering from PTSD she decides to move across the country to a small town and start anew. She accepts a teaching position and slowly is starting to get her life together, except for the recurring nightmares of the school shooting and getting shot.
Sam is the police chief, single dad of adorable 6 year old twin daughters. The girls notice that they are getting a new neighbor across the street and Sam stops by to welcome her to town. When the girls learn that she is a 1st grade teacher and that she might be their teacher their excitement will bring a smile to your face. Both Katie and Sam have trust issues and slowly learn to overcome them.
A slow building romance with several stories involving the children in Katie’s class. No matter where one lives there are evil people. The only issue I had was why Katie ex fiancé was throughout the story, I thought maybe he would try to get back into Katie life. The storyline didn’t really make sense to me. Just should have focus on the main characters. Thank you NetGalley for this eARC. I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an Advance Reader Copy of this story. #NetGalley #TheNextBestDay

THE NEXT BEST DAY – Sharon Sala
Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN: ‎978-1728249032
November 8, 2022
Contemporary Romance

New Mexico & Tennessee – Present Day

As THE NEXT BEST DAY opens, it’s schoolteacher Katie McGrath’s wedding day and she is waiting for the ceremony to start. The groom suddenly texts her to not only break their engagement but to inform Katie that he just married another woman. Heartbroken, Katie takes comfort from her friends and colleagues at the school she teaches, but one day, tragedy strikes. A former student opens fire on people at the school, and as Katie watches a fellow teacher killed, she is also shot and injured. Waking up in the hospital, she faces not only a recovery from the physical injuries but also from the psychological ones.

Katie can’t face returning to the school, so she looks for another job out of state. Of course, she can’t lie about what happened to her but hopefully, they will not press her for details. She finally lands a teaching job in Borden’s Gap, Tennessee, a small town. Moving to the town sight unseen, she lands a small cottage to live in. Turns out one of her neighbors is a single dad and the sheriff of Borden’s Gap. Sam Youngblood and his twin daughters are friendly and welcoming. In fact, a lot of people in town welcome Katie, but it is Sam that she is drawn to. Will Katie finally find the happiness that has eluded her for months?

THE NEXT BEST DAY will bring out a wide range of emotions for readers as Katie faces the disappointment of being dumped by her fiancé, then the horror of the school shooting, before finding happiness with a new life and a new man. Katie was raised in foster care and thought she’d finally found stability. Alas, her dreams were shattered and now she is left with PTSD. Because of what happened to her, she doesn’t let people get too close to her. Her relationship with Sam builds slowly, mostly through the little girls. But soon, both realize that they want more than friendship. Of course, not everything goes smoothly but she somehow manages to work her way through it.

Meanwhile, in THE NEXT BEST DAY, we get to see what happens to Katie’s ex-fiancé. I won’t go through the plotline about it, but it’s safe to say that he ends up having regrets for what he did to Katie. Eventually, he finds his way to where he belongs. This tale is an uplifting story of faith and heartwarming thoughts. There are multiple characters that the author flips to their point of view and by the end, all the loose ends are tied up. The bad people find their comeuppance, while the good people mostly find happiness. While there are a couple of love scenes between Katie and Sam, it is not explicit. The romance is mostly slow between them. After all, she has gone through a lot.

Told over many months, THE NEXT BEST DAY is a tale that will keep you engrossed to find out what happens with everyone. Sometimes it is tough to see the pain suffered, but readers know that we will eventually see the love and goodness we expect in a romance novel. Don’t miss THE NEXT BEST DAY.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was such a heartwarming and sometimes heart breaking story. Katie McGrath was an inspiration and deserved every second of her happy ever after. This story of for everyone who needs to see goodness win. A must read!


ARC provided by NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book. I really liked the start of this book and I loved the way the main character was able to overcome her demons and have a happy life. That being said, I was disappointed with the side story that the creep's story that left her at the altar did not continue to have an impact in the story. That part of the story just seemed to fizzle out and die. The beginning of the book was extremely gripping and I am happy that the main character did find her happiness, however with that dangling unused part of the story, the rest of the book was not as good as the beginning.

Chalk up yet another amazing, heartfelt read from Sharon Sala, and as a long-time fan of her novels, this one surprised me, not just because it was an excellent read, but because of the staggering list of triggers in this story, and here's the list of them: drugs and the Mafia, cheating, murder, school shootings, PTSD, jilted lovers, widowed father/single parent, alcoholism, child abandonment, domestic violence and child sexual abuse. All of the aforementioned are handled with so much grace, and so much understanding that I have no idea how Ms. Sala managed to pull it off, but pull it off she did, in spades. This was a 5-star read.

The novel is centered around the heroine, 1st grade school teacher, Katie McGrath, who was abandoned at birth, and found in a cardboard box alongside a dumpster, and who grew up in a series of foster homes. Now an adult, Katie has managed to build a life for herself in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it's her wedding day. At least it was, Mark, the man she believes will be waiting for her at the altar, calls her to let her know he can't marry her--he married his boss's daughter last night in Las Vegas, where he and Katie had planned to honeymoon. There's a subplot running through this story about the louse and his wife, but for this reader, I found Katie's story far more interesting, especially since, while still in Chapter One, there's a crazed gunman in her school, shooting and killing at random, and Katie takes two bullets in her back, while sheltering two of her young students beneath her body.

Four days later, Katie finally wakes up in a hospital, having survived her injuries, but the experience has left her with PTSD, night terrors, and an inability to ever teach again at that elementary school. Katie is a survivor in every sense of the word, and decides to apply for teaching jobs in smaller towns, as far away from a big city as she can get--and she finds just the place to make a fresh start in Borden's Gap. Tennessee, population around 4,000, where she rents a lovely little cottage, directly across the street from the home of handsome, widowed police chief, Sam, and his adorable, twin 6-year-old daughters, Beth and Evie, who absolutely steal the show in this novel.

At this point in the novel, Ms. Sala has you believing that it will be smooth sailing from here on, Katie will adapt to her new job and new town, Sam and Katie's attraction to one another will grow, and while that does happen, you couldn't be more wrong about it being smooth sailing, because just when you think that all will be well, it isn't. As Ms. Sala obviously knows, living in a small southern town doesn't mean evil doesn't also reside there, and there's a lot more for Katie to get through, some of it heartbreakingly sad, some of it terrifying, and some of the revelations shocking, before Katie eventually finds her happily ever after.

This novel wasn't an easy read to take because of all the aforementioned triggers, all of which are, in fact, contemporary, real-life horror stories, but they are handled with so much depth and compassion that you cannot help but root for Katie, who gives new meaning to the word "survivor," and you also cannot help but marvel at Sharon Sala's skill at bringing these characters to life, and writing yet another impossible-to-put novel.

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