The Sweet Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher is a delightful tale of a mother and daughter whose unexpected life circumstances take them on a journey together that leads them to a life they never could have imagined.

From the back of the book:

Dawn Dixon can hardly believe she’s on a groomless honeymoon on beautiful Cape Cod . . . with her mother. Sure, Marnie Dixon is good company, but Dawn was supposed to be here with Kevin, the love of her life (or so she thought).

Marnie Dixon needs some time away from the absolute realness of life as much as her jilted daughter does, and she’s not about to let her only child suffer alone–even if Marnie herself had been doing precisely that for the past month.

Given the circumstances, maybe it was inevitable that Marnie would do something as rash as buy a run-down ice-cream shop in the town’s tightly regulated historic district. After all, everything’s better with ice cream.

Her exasperated daughter knows that she’s the one who will have to clean up this mess. Even when her mother’s impulsive real estate purchase brings Kevin back into her life, Dawn doesn’t get her hopes up. Everyone knows that broken romances stay broken . . . don’t they?

Welcome to a summer of sweet surprises on Cape Cod–a place where dreams just might come true.

I devoured (ice cream pun) this book in one day – I had to know what happened! One of the elements I loved was that both women were on journeys they didn’t ask for, circumstances that were forced upon them without their consent. And those circumstances brought them to a life they couldn’t have imagined previously. They learned about each other and many pieces of wisdom were woven throughout.

I quickly found myself cheering them on, wanting this new adventure to be successful in more than just a financial sense. I also relates to both women in some key ways – one being perfectionism and a desire for spontaneity/taking risks but never having the courage to act in that. This book involves historic restorations, small town drama, so many things to draw different readers in.

Most importantly, the lessons on what really matters in life (and the brevity of it) shone through every chapter and I appreciated those reminders.

I look forward to the second book in the series!