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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not much of anything happening here, August 11, 2010
This review is from: Home Again (The Chesapeake Diaries) (Mass Market Paperback)
This move by romantic suspense authors into boring small town women's fiction almost completely devoid of romance is not a trend I appreciate.
Mariah Stewart's first book in this series was a very good mix of small town contemporary and suspense, but it seems with her second (and, presumably, third) book she's moved away from suspense entirely. That leaves not very much at all. There's a lot of time discussing flavours in the ice cream shop; lots of great aunt to niece discussions about `the good old days'; lots of child rearing; too much time talking about dogs.
Apart from a brief childhood conversation in the prologue, the hero and heroine aren't even in the same scene until about a hundred and twenty pages in. This is book isn't a romance.
The problem is, I have absolutely no idea what this book is.
Dallas spent childhood summers in St. Dennis, where Grant grew up. They had a teenage romance that Grant thought would last forever. Dallas upped and dumped him one day, went to Hollywood, became a movie star, and never looked back.
That's about where the heroine lost me. I expected there was more to her story than that, but there wasn't. She just didn't care enough.
When Dallas' failed marriage starts making news headlines she rushes `home' with her son. Then they all sit around living a perfect existence in the perfect town. Grant is a veterinarian now, and they bond over dog rescuing. Everyone spends hundreds of pages walking by the water, and that's about it.
There's a side story involving Dallas writing a screenplay the studio wants her and her great aunt (who is, naturally, also a movie star) for. The reason I mention this is that Dallas' character in the movie is supposed to be a middle aged woman. Dallas is thirty-eight. I wasn't aware women in their thirties with sons in kindergarten were already at a point where they had to think about menopause and retirement.
Maybe in sixty years I'll be old enough and set enough in my routine that this story might appeal more (but I certainly hope not!). However - coming from a writer who used to be able to create exciting stories - this one bored me beyond belief. I was skim reading half the time simply because I couldn't stand any more descriptions of the flowers, the crabs, the local cuisine, the ice cream store. The main character of the story seemed to be the sickeningly-perfect small town, and that just wasn't a decent source of entertainment to make this a good book.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
entertaining contemporary second chance at love, July 28, 2010
This review is from: Home Again (The Chesapeake Diaries) (Mass Market Paperback)
Dallas MacGregor knows she has come a long way since moving to St. Dennis on the Maryland side of Chesapeake Bay from New Jersey back in 1983. She hated the change until she met and debated worms with Grant as she lived with energetic Great Aunt Berry just after her four years old sister died. In 2010 she has become an award winning actress.
However, her wonderful Hollywood lifestyle is nuked when her soon-to-be-former spouse, movie producer Emilio Baird is involved in a sex scandal that causes a nightmare for Dallas as the tabloids investigate and bombard her with innuendos and deliberate half-truths and lies. Sick of the unfair furor and wanting to keep her son Cody safe from the feeding frenzy of the media nasties, she flees from Southern California with her child to Aunt Berry's abode where she remembers spending her happiest childhood moments. There she and veterinarian Dr. Grant Wyler soon meet and both understand deja vu as they still are attracted to one another. However, his performance is sidetracked when Cody and his new best buddy Logan vanish and a frantic Dallas panics. Emilio followed by the media storm rushes to Maryland in order to salvage his career by performing as the doting husband and concerned father. However, while he acts for the cameras, Grant performs in the field for the woman and her son he loves.
The latest Chesapeake Diaries family drama (see Coming Home) is an entertaining contemporary second chance at love romance. Dallas is the star as the link between Hollywood and St. Dennis while the rest of the cast play second and third banana support roles. Although the comparison between a shallow Hollywood and a profound Chesapeake Bay seems exaggerated on each coast, readers will enjoy Dallas' coming Home Again.
Harriet Klausner
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Continuation to a Fantastic Series!, May 30, 2011
This review is from: Home Again (The Chesapeake Diaries) (Mass Market Paperback)
I absolutely LOVE Mariah Stewart! She has been a favorite author of mine for some time, when I read some of her previous works, including book 1 in The Chesapeake Diaries Series, Coming Home. Her work is emotional yet humorous at times, complex yet enlightening and her characters become your family. Her writing style is tender and filled with her passion to create novels that her readers will love.
In Home Again, the reader is taken back to the Chesapeake area of Maryland (which I love because I was born in Maryland!). The reader gets a first hand look at Dallas' life. Sweet, sweet Dallas, bless her heart. She went through so much turmoil, both as a young girl, and later, as an adult actress in Hollywood. When things turn sour with her producer hubby, she seeks solace once again in the heart of the Bay in Maryland, with her great aunt. But, once there, she is reunited with her once best friend and sweetheart, Grant.
I loved reading Dallas and Grant's stories. They are both written with so much personality and love and they flow perfectly with the plot line. I really loved them both! And, not to mention, Dallas' sweet son, Cody. Bless his heart, I really felt a motherly pull to him, too!
I highly recommend this book to everyone. If you are looking for a good summer read this summer, then grab a copy of Mariah Stewart's 5 star book! It is part of a series, but it keeps the reader up to date so it's not overly confusing and could be read as a stand alone. I don't recommend it though, because books in a series are always best read in order, so the reader can savor each moment! I also had the pleasure to read book 3, Almost Home.....look for my review tomorrow!
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