Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Comfort Songs by Kimberly Fish (Review)

“Sometimes, we all need a moment to forget the world and fall into a song.”

Comfort Songs by Kimberly Fish is the perfect combination of sweet romance, rocky relationships, hurtful assumptions and grudges, songs to mend broken hearts and create new beginnings, a field of lavender to soothe the soul, and a dog named Beans that offers soft kisses and constant companionship.

Autumn Joy “AJ” Worthington owns and runs a lavender farm in Comfort, Texas, that actually reminds me a little bit of Wildseed Farms near Fredericksburg, Texas. Comfort is a quaint little town in the Texas Hill Country, and Kimberly Fish captures that small-town vibe to perfection. I especially loved the reference to PoPo Restaurant near Boerne because now I’m craving their fabulous blackberry cobbler and all the comfort food you can eat.

Comfort Songs is entertaining and engaging, and the dynamics between AJ and her grandmother Inez and her divorced parents, Roger and July, drive this story and give it an emotional and thought-provoking edge all the way through. AJ has always preferred to remain in the shadows cast by the blinding glow of her parents’ musical success, infamous divorce, and crash landing from the spotlight, all of which have provided far too much sensational fodder for the tabloids and gossips. When AJ moves back to Comfort after a breakup, she finds healing and peace by tilling the land and creating the lucrative Lavender Hill farm/store. When her mother moves in, crushed and newly retired from her musical career, AJ is determined to shelter her and give her time to heal. However, Luke English from Nashville has other plans. When AJ’s grandmother starts showing signs of dementia and when AJ’s bankrupt father shows up on her doorstep, AJ is forced to navigate a minefield of fragile egos, her grandmother’s mental decline, and a budding affection for Luke who naturally and skillfully steps in to help out and subsequently steals everyone’s heart.

Comfort Songs is an incredible journey of healing, forgiveness, self-realization, illness, and revelations that threaten to break apart a family that is already broken and bruised from a lifetime of bitterness and bad choices.

Several things make this story remarkable. Kimberly Fish’s literary writing style is lyrical and appeals to the senses because you can almost smell the lavender and feel the warm Texas summer. The characters are real and messy and full of emotional baggage. Many scenes are filled with raw moments of reflection and realization, especially when AJ finally realizes that the only thing she can change and control is herself. The gardening advice at the beginning of many chapters called “Lessons from Lavender Hill” are the perfect companion to the action in the story because nature is always ready to guide us in the right direction. And finally, the flashbacks to young Inez and her tumultuous life with her husband George and his family, especially his mother, show that history often has a nasty habit of repeating itself, even when we vow to be different.

So many interesting characters, scenes, and moments are tucked into the pages of this wonderful story that is primarily about accepting our beautifully flawed and damaged selves as well as our loved ones who often simply need a safe place to land and a favorite song to remind them that they are loved and that they still have a lot of life to live and a lot of love to give.

Enter the giveaway below on or before November 1, 2019, for a chance to win some fabulous prizes.

I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.