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


COMFORT SONGS
a companion novel to Comfort Plans
by
KIMBERLY FISH
 
Genre: Contemporary Romance / Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Fish Tales, LLC 
Date of Publication: September 19, 2019
Number of Pages: 348


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Award-winning author of Comfort Plans, Kimberly Fish, delivers a novel about family, forgiveness, and the seeds of second chances.
Eight years ago, Autumn Joy Worthington, still reeling from the bitter divorce of her Grammy-Award-winning parents, endured the betrayal of a man who’d promised her a wedding. Running from pain seemed the logical response. Reinventing herself in Comfort, Texas, as a lavender grower, she creates a wildly successful gardening haven that draws in tourists and establishes an identity far removed from her parents’ fame. Her mother’s retirement from stardom inspires AJ to offer her refuge and nurse the dream that they could move past old hurts and the tarnish of the music industry … to find friendship. A grandmother in the early stages of dementia and the return of AJ’s father complicate the recovery, but nothing sets the fragile reality spinning like the arrival of Nashville music executive, Luke English.
As Alzheimer’s slowly knocks away the filters of their family, AJ comes to appreciate the true meanings of love and forgiveness — and that the power of redemption can generate from the most unlikely sources. When AJ uncovers the grit to make hard choices, she also discovers that the flowers that bloom the brightest can have the most tangled roots.

“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.


Kimberly Fish is a professional writer with almost thirty years of media experience. She’s been telling stories far longer. She published her first novel, a WWII historical fiction novel, because of a true story in her adopted hometown that was too good to ignore.  She quickly followed that success with a sequel. Since then, she’s continued writing fiction and added a contemporary second-chance romance series set in Comfort, Texas, to her list of fun, fast-paced novels. Kimberly lives with her family in East Texas.
 
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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!
SIGNED COPY OF COMFORT SONGS
HUMMINGBIRD FARMS HAND CREAM & HAND SOAP
OCTOBER 22-NOVEMBER 1, 2019
(U.S. Only)
 

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

10/22/19 Review Momma on the Rocks
10/22/19 BONUS Promo All the Ups and Downs
10/23/19 Review Reading by Moonlight
10/23/19 Review KayBee’s Book Shelf
10/24/19 Review Sybrina’s Book Blog
10/25/19 Review Sydney Young, Stories
10/25/19 Review Bibliotica
10/26/19 Review That’s What She’s Reading
10/27/19 Review Book Fidelity
10/28/19 Review The Book Review
10/28/19 Review Missus Gonzo
10/29/19 Review Forgotten Winds
10/30/19 Review The Clueless Gent
10/30/19 Review StoreyBook Reviews
10/31/19 Review Hall Ways Blog
10/31/19 Review Carpe Diem Chronicles
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2 Replies to “Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Comfort Songs by Kimberly Fish (Review)”

  1. Sounds like Kimberly Fish has knocked it out of the park with this book. She just keeps getting better! Thanks for the wonderful review.