Sing Me Home to Carolina — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Joy Callaway
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Alcove
Pages: 336

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A small town girl turned big city businesswoman returns home to help her parents, only to find her heart being tugged between her old flame and the town’s mysterious new guy.

This witty and effervescent novel is perfect for readers of Viola Shipman and fans of Sweet Magnolias and Hart of Dixie.

Event planner Hattie Norwood only came back home to Mountain View, South Carolina to support her parents as they receive word that the family peanut farm is infertile. This news doesn’t come as a surprise to Hattie, and she plans to return to Charlotte at the weekend’s end.

But then the town councilwoman begs Hattie to use her event planning prowess to help Mountain View put on a musical benefit to stop the construction of the new Carolina Panthers stadium—a project Hattie is actually in favor of, much to the dismay of the locals—and she finds herself agreeing to stay until the town’s Founder’s Day celebration a week later, just as her old flame, former MLB standout Lee Lockhardt, materializes in town after a career-ending injury.

When the hunky and mysterious new owner of Fox’s Hardware, Fox Ryan, suggests the Founder’s Day celebration be moved to the Norwoods’ barn in an attempt to reinvent the failing farm as a music and event venue, Hattie agrees, unaware this move will thrust the town, her love life, and the brewing tension over the stadium into a very public spotlight.

Fans of small-town romance and quirky casts of characters will be rooting for Team Lee or Team Fox as Hattie decides if love, like most music, is meant to fade or last forever.

First Impressions

This book sucked me in with the cover. I saw the cover on Netgalley and then read the summary and immediately requested it. I loved the show Hart of Dixie and was excited to read a story that gave those same vibes

What I thought

Uh…

Hattie returns to her small home town in South Carolina to help her parents after they found out their peanut farm is no longer productive. While there, her town is dealing with the possibility of the Carolina Panthers choosing them as the location for their new stadium. On top of that, she runs into her old high school love and also a new handsome man in town. She has to juggle romance, family duties, and her job back in Charlotte.

Everybody in this town sucks. Hattie, Lee, the Mayor. All of them. The only one who doesn’t is Fox, and he isn’t even from the town. When she comes back for a weekend visit, Hattie refuses to sign the town petition protesting the new stadium because she feels like the town will fail without it. The town immediately turns on her and of course, if her single signuature isn’t on the petition, then the state will look at that as weakness and say that the town isn’t 100% against the stadium so they’re going to build there anyway. Cue the biggest eye roll ever. The reaction these people had to her not wanting to sign was extreme. They legit went to her house and protested her! In front of her parents!

On top of that, Lee, he ex-boyfriend from high school turned pro MLB player, is back in town. He is such a douche. I’ve seen people online say that when you’re online dating, instead of asking a man if he’s dating anyone, you should ask them if there is anyone out there who thinks that they are in a relationship with you. That’s how I feel about Lee. He is seeing Willow, claims that she knos it’s casual and that they’re not exclusive and is therefore trying to makeout with Hattie, yet every time Willow comes around she is all over Lee and glaring at Hattie. I also didn’t understand how two people could claim to be so madly in love with each other for years and yet neither of them tried to get in touch with the other. I never wanted them to end up together and they were together and “in love” for 80% of the book.

Fox, the other love interest was interesting. He seemed to immediately fall in love with Hattie and she sort of did too? Yet she was also in love with Lee? It was so weird. Because she didn’t even know Fox, yet she was crushing on him. He also had a mysterious past as he had shown up in the town and bought the hardware story and didn’t even have people calling him by his real name.

Then there’s this entire storyline about Lee getting discovered by a record label, immediately moving to Nashville and getting signed and then immediately going on tour in Europe as an opener. Hattie makes zero effot to continue this relationship while Lee is out of town, even though she claims to have been in love with him for 10 years.

Have I vented about this book enough? I found the writing to be terrible and the characters insufferable. I wanted so much more from a small town romance but this was not it. I don’t see how people can find any of these characters likable or find a single person to route for. I couldn’t even cheer for the romance!