Blog tour/Book Review: Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck

Caroline has many troubles, not isolated to car trouble! When she finds out people have nicknamed her with a nickname directly related to her car constantly breaking down in the streets, she wonders why she stays here! She is dependable, honest, hardworking and helps her family, unlike her mother who abandoned them years ago. When the owner of  the cafe she works at passes away, she figured  that she would finally get her chance to do great things and see the world. Complications ensue, when she finds out that she  inheirits  the cafe! If she does not take it, people lose a well known landmark, jobs and the wonderful place they love to eat….but otherwise she has to take care of the cafe, with no money and it’s many problems, not limited to plumbing! Meanwhile, an old friend comes back to town, a famous singer now,  you can read right away there was more than friendship going on there before, but Caroline has a boyfriend, a dependable police officer! Spain  or abandoning the people who love her? The constant emails from her best friend offering her great jobs in  other lands, tempt her! Will she make the right choice? <p>All through out it mentions this great recipe for Bubba’s Buttery Biscuits and by the end of the book, you are craving them!
Here is the recipe for them!
Bubba’s Buttery Biscuits!

3 cups self-rising flour
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled, plus 6
tablespoons unsalted butter, melted for brushing the tops
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the flour and chilled butter in a medium mixing bowl. Work the butter
into the flour with a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingertips until the
butter pieces are a little larger than an English pea, but not larger than a
lima bean. If you are using your fingers, work quickly so that the heat of
your hands won’t melt the butter.

Pour in all of the buttermilk and, using light pressure, fold the mixture a
few times with a plastic spatula until it holds together. Do not over mix.
In order to make light biscuits, it is important to work the dough as little
as possible.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead it quickly and gently 6 to
10 times or until it begins to be almost homogenized. There will be large
pieces of butter throughout. Sprinkle a little flour under the dough so that
it won’t stick to the board and lightly dust the top of the dough so that it
won’t stick to the board and lightly dust the top of the dough so that it
won’t stick to the rolling pin. Roll the dough out to about 1/2-inch
thickness.

Cut the dough into 2-inch rounds, place on an ungreased baking sheet, and
bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. I like the biscuits to be
crispy and brown on the top and bottom, but not dry in the middle. Remove
the baking sheet from the oven and brush the tops of the biscuits with the
melted butter. Serve right away. (recipe from Louis Osteen)<p>

Would you like to win a great gift package including an apron? The Sweet Life contest!
Enter to win a Scrumptious Baking Basket from Rachel. The basket contains a Super Cool Apron, a Low country cook book signed by PAT CONROY, rolling pin, and a pie plate! All you have to do to
enter is sign up for Rachel’s newsletter here:
http://rachelhauck.com/newsletter.htm<p>

About Rachel:

I’m a forty-something, a child of the ’60’s, ’70’s, ’80’s, ’90’s and ’00’s.

I roller skated through the ’70’s into the ’80’s with Farrah Fawcet hair and
a three-speed orange Camero.

Born in Ohio, I lived several years in Oklahoma and Kentucky before my
parents moved the family to Florida.

I graduated from Ohio State University (Go Buckeyes!) with a degree in
Journalism. As a member of Phi Mu sorority, I partied my way though the last
few years of college.

But, the truth is, and always will be, I belong to Jesus. At the age of six,
I knelt at the altar of a Tulsa Methodist church and gave my life to the One
who loves me.

After graduation, hired on at Harris Publishing as a software trainer,
determined to see the world. And I did it without a laptop, a cell phone, an
IPod or portable DVD player. Those were hard times.

But, I traveled to Ireland, Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Australia, Canada and
the U.S. from California to Maine. But, life on the road is difficult.
Working twelve to fourteen hour days, one doesn’t get to see many of the
sites. In Ireland, our company’s distributor drove me around at night so I
could see something of Dublin.

I met Tony, my husband, in ’87, at church, of all places. We got married in
’92. Tony has been a pastor for twenty years. I’ve worked with him in
eighteen of those twenty. Our heart is to see teens and adults passionate,
radical and whole hearted for Jesus.

Tony and I don’t have any children of our own, lots of kids-in-the-Lord and
we love them all. However, we do have a very spoiled dog, and an even more
spoiled cat.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. My dad used to tell me, "You’re a
writer."  I have letters he wrote me post college, exhorting me to write. In
this, I believe he had the heart of God.

In ’93, I started an epic WW2 novel with two plots. It was well rejected.
After that ordeal, I took a break and put efforts into my job as a software
project manager. But, I missed writing and in late ‘ 99, I took up the craft
again.

With a little help from my friends, my first book was published in ‘ 04,
Lambert’s Pride, a romance novel. I love writing chick lit and romance. I
love writing. What an honor.
Rachel’s blog<p>

Buy the Book here

<p> I enjoyed this book! It had great humor, a lively story line with great characters. I did wish though it ended differently.  I cannot give away the ending for those of you who would like to read it, but through all Caroline’s decision making, she chose others before herself and the last one seemed like  it was not really that way.  I always thought that I missed out on something, being dependable, working to take care of people,  and wondered what would be different if I did do the things I always wanted to do.
I will tell you, it is worth it to give your life for others. I think Caroline will make the right choice, I think she will go to Spain and realize that  the things that matter most in life are the people you love as she has made that decision in the whole book!