Lauryn Harper Falls Apart by Shauna Robinson ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

A rollicking fall novel where the friend who left and the friend who stayed must reunite to save their hometown through the fall festival that once brought them together. 

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

September 2025; Sourcebooks Landmark; 978-1464252549
audio, ebook, print (384 pages); women's fiction

They say that you can never go home again, but what if home is the only place you can find real happiness and contentment in your life?  When Lauryn Harper was growing up, she couldn't wait to get away from small-town life in Virginia and live in Washington, DC.  She has plans for her life in DC, and even though she doesn't really like her job, she knows that it will help her retire at an early age so that she can spend the rest of her life being happy.  After a huge mistake at her job in DC, she is sent to their charity division that is in her hometown.  She hopes that she'll be able to redeem herself quickly and return to the main office in DC, but sometimes life has different plans for people.

Lauryn is horrified at the thought of moving home and living with her father and stepmother.  More importantly, she knows that she'll see her ex-best friend Marina.  Losing their friendship has left a huge hole in Lauryn's heart, and she doesn't want to see her and get hurt even more.  When she arrives at her new office, she is met with a rag-tag group who really don't have much to do, but what they do have in common is that they were all transferred there from the home office because of job mistakes.  But was it that or did they know too many secrets about the company?  When Marina walks into the office and asks for help re-creating the fall apple festival to make money to keep the community center alive, Lauryn sees this as a chance to redeem herself and get back to her job in DC.  However, as she gets involved with planning, she finds that the unfriendly office staff is beginning to work as a team, she and Marina are talking to each other, and she wants to help the town achieve success.  

This simple little book doesn't have a lot of surprises and follows a fairly traditional plot, but what makes it stand out is Lauryn and all of the changes in her.  She goes from an unhappy and uninvolved person living in a basement apartment in DC to a person interested in making her hometown a success and finally finding all of the happiness that she's been missing.  I especially liked the friendship between her and Marina that evolved from best friends to people who didn't care about each other, and then struggled to find that friendship again.

This book is heartwarming and will leave you with a smile!

Buy Lauryn Harper Falls Apart at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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