Blog Tour Review: Lemon Drop Falls by Heather Clark

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

A powerful story about love, grief, and healing.

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and Heather Clark for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary ARC and media kit!

Book Information

Genre: Middle Grade General
Publishing Date: February 15, 2022

Brave the sour to taste the sweet.

Morgan is devastated by her mother’s sudden death. Before, Mom’s amazing organizational skills kept the family on track, and her bowl of lemon drops was always on hand to make difficult conversations easy, turning life’s sour into sweet. After, there’s no one to help Morgan navigate her new role caring for her younger siblings, her worries about starting junior high, and her increasingly confusing friendships. All she can do is try to fulfill her mother’s final request: Keep them safe, Morgan. Be brave for them. Help them be happy.

When Dad insists on taking the family on their regular summer camping trip, and Morgan’s efforts to keep her promise to Mom seem doomed to fail, Morgan’s anxiety spirals into a panic attack, and Dad treats her like she’s impossibly broken. Unable to share her fears and needs with Dad, and desperate to prove she’s got the strength to hold the family together, Morgan sets off alone to hike a flooding canyon trail. But somewhere on that lonely and dangerous journey, Morgan will encounter the truth about the final words her mother left her, the power in finding her own voice, and the possibility of new beginnings.

Purchase/Information Links:

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58449540-lemon-drop-falls
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lemon-Drop-Falls-Heather-Clark/dp/1631635794/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=9781631635793&linkCode=qs&qid=1639149461&s=books&sr=1-1#detailBullets_feature_div
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lemon-drop-falls-heather-clark/1140114248?ean=9781631635793
• Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Lemon-Drop-Falls-Heather-Clark/9781631635793?ref=grid-view&qid=1639149691497&sr=1-1
• IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781631635793

Content and Trigger Warnings

For a list of warnings, tropes, and representation for this book, check out its page on BookTriggerWarnings.com.

About the Author

Heather Clark grew up near the Rocky Mountains of Canada, then followed the mountain range south, to her current home in Utah, where she lives with her husband and three children who inspire the books she writes. Heather’s work as a writer, photographer, and teacher helps her see the beauty and unique value in every person. After dealing with her own childhood anxiety and OCD, Heather is passionate about representing neurodiverse children powerfully in fiction. When she’s not working, you can find Heather camping, hiking, boardgaming, or reading and celebrating books at MGBookParty.com. You can learn more about Heather and her books at HeatherClarkBooks.com. LEMON DROP FALLS is her debut novel.

Author Links:

• Website: https://www.heatherclarkbooks.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/hclarkwrites
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherclarkbooks/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21661377.Heather_Clark
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heatherclarkbooks
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/onewomansworld/lemon-drop-falls/

Review (no spoilers)

This book was nothing short of amazing. If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

Lemon Drop Falls is an incredibly powerful middle grade novel about a 12 year old girl struggling to survive after the unexpected death of her mother. It has major themes of anxiety, loss, friendships, and grief, so though I would highly recommend this book, I do so with the caveat that you should expect to be emotionally devastated at times, particularly towards the end of the book. (I know I was a hot crying mess towards the end).

There are so many important messages that Heather Clark managed to get across in this novel, but I think the one I loved the most was the emphasis on how a good relationship must involve healthy and open communication. The title and base plot of the story comes from Clark’s own family tradition of sharing “lemon drops”, i.e. difficult conversations with each other that may start out sour, but will ultimately end up sweet. I absolutely loved this idea and can imagine that by adding literal lemon drops to the mix, a good amount of children would probably enjoy it as well! The only way that we, as people, can learn to live harmoniously with each other is if we’re allowed the space to share our experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Lemon Drop Falls does an excellent job at expressing this message.

Back when I was in high school, I read the Christian novel The Shack, a story about one man’s journey to overcome the grief that threatens to drown him after his young daughter goes missing. Lemon Drop Falls had a very similar feeling to it but without the religious undertones. Yes, this is a story about grief and loss, but it’s also a story about perseverance, friendships, and healing.