From New York City to Tennessee?

Was Cassie making the right move? She thought so, but meeting family members she hadn't seen since she was three was frightening as well as disillusioning. She had to find out her roots, to find out what happened to her mother, to find out why her mother really didn't want to live in Sweetwater, Tennessee, and to find out why her grandfather left her the family home and 60 acres?. What could the reason possibly be when she never knew him?

Cassie is an interesting character that you will love and one that pairs up with an absorbing story that unfolds as alternating ?voices from one generation to the next tell their tale in this splendid story. SWEET WATER smoothly flows from Grandmother Clyde's narrations to Cassie's retelling, reliving, and revealing of the secrets the Clyde family held.

Ms. Kline has this time written a marvelous book about families, roots, and life-changing secrets. Every family member was good at keeping secrets especially the one that Grandmother Clyde kept for 20 years and the secret that ate at her for her entire life. Did Grandfather Clyde want Cassie to find something out? Perhaps the secret?

I really enjoyed ?SWEET WATER because of the characters and the way Ms. Kline ?just pulled you in with her terrific, creative, thought-provoking storyline.

My rating is a 4/5 because SWEET WATER is a read you won't want to stop reading once you get going.? If you have read any of Ms. Kline’s other books, you know what a treat you are in for when you read SWEET WATER.

The only thing that is holding me back from giving the book a 5/5 is that it was difficult to figure out who the one narrator was until a number of pages into the book and also because of the peculiar love story. I am not sure how this love story fits in with the storyline except perhaps to prove how dysfunctional the Clyde family was.

Don't miss reading this newest addition to Ms. Kline's already fantastic lineup.
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I received this book free of charge and without compensation from the publisher in return for an honest review.?

Well let me start out by saying that I loved this author's book, "The Orphan Train". I was expecting another outstanding story but I'm afraid the author missed the boat on this one.

Cassandra, who lives in New York City and works in a small, struggling art store, receives word that the grandfather she never really knew has passed away and left her his land and old home in Sweet Water. When Cassandra was a small child, her mother was killed in a car accident in which her grandfather was driving. With a life that is lacking luster and with nothing to lose, she sets out for Alabama to meet her mother's family that she doesn't know but with a personal motive to help solve the mystery surrounding her mother's death.

Secrets and cover-ups seem to be the norm not only throughout her mother's family, but the town as well. I felt the story had great potential for a good plot as the secrets involved more than one death. But that's about where my positive comments end. I'll admit I was glued to my Nook screen hanging on every word and praying for a resolution to the pain inflicted on so many so long ago. Unfortunately, it ended somewhat like Gone With the Wind. Like we all hoped that Scarlet would eventually win back the heart of Rhett, we were left not knowing what really happened -- it was left to the imagination and creativity of the reader. Well this story ends just as abruptly, perhaps even more so. There are no lose ends tied up. What you are left with is acknowledgement that Cassandra has made a decision on the new found love in her life and Grandma says she has lots of story to tell but the following page is a bio on the author. I don't usually read a book to write my own ending and when I purchase a book, I expect a beginning AND an end.

I gave this 3 stars because it did hold my interest until the end (or lack of one) and I did like the author's ability to tell the story from both Cassandra and her grandmother's voice and make it a smooth transition. I'm not counting this author out yet because she certainly told a great historical fiction story in The Orphan Train so I know the talent is there. This story showed promise, but I think her follow-through resulted in landing in a sand trap.