Customer Reviews

Magnolia Creek

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dr. Dru Talbot has returned from the Civil War looking forward to the life he will lead with his "new" wife Sara. When he returns home he discovers he's in for the shock of his life. Sara is there, having just returned herself, but she's not alone. With her is her daughter, who is way to young to belong to Dru. Sara was lead to believe Dru was dead and being the naive, backwoods girl she was, fell under the spell of a Yankee soldier, who used her and left her with a baby. Sara returns to Kentucky and is an outcast by everyone except Dru's mentally disturbed sister, who takes her in. Can the damage done to this family be repaired??? Can mistakes be forgiven??? Can love conquer all???

This book was absolutely wonderful. It was so easy to read and had characters who seemed completely believable and sincere. I agree with the other reviewer that it is nice to read books about characters other than the ton and royalty. It is great to read about our country and the past it has with characters who are written to fit right in to the time period. The characters were well developed and the storyline seemed to be well thought out before the author started writing the book. If you love romances or books about America's history you will love Magnolia Creek.

Magnolia Creek was such a good read that I had the book finished in just two days! It was just too good to put down. I just love a book that leaves you wanting more after the last page and this book definitely does that. These characters seem so real that they become part of you and you miss them when you are finished.

This was my first Jill Marie Landis book and I guarantee it won't be my last! A great book to be read again and again.

plays a huge part in this book as well as love and families. I loved Lou, Sara and the baby. Some characters could have and should have had a stronger voice, but overall this story of love and "betrayal" was enjoyable. As another viewer said I really didn't see what the big deal is. If someone is said to be dead, are you supposed to wait around for them? Sort of like in the movie Pearl Harbor.

I have enjoyed a few books from this author and look forward to more!

In the spring of 1866, with the aftermath of the Civil War, a destitute Sara Collier Talbot returns to Magnolia Creek, Kentucky. She seeks shelter at the home of her sister-in-law, Louzanna Talbot. Though Sara left Kentucky in disgrace over a year after discovering that her husband Dru had been killed in the war, Lou welcomed her back with open arms.

But Dru has in fact survived the war, and struggles with his damaged male pride when he learns that Sara hasn't spent recent years pining away at the Talbot family home. For her journey west to Ohio resulted in a surprise that Dru never expected when he dreamed of his homecoming. As Dru and Sara try to maintain a platonic truce, she hopes for his forgiveness even as he struggles with his attraction to her. And when a devastating tragedy involves the whole town, Dru, the physician, and Sara, the healer, must employ all their skills to save as many lives as possible.

Ms. Landis is a standout in the sub-genre of historical romance, not merely for her page-turning stories, but also because her novels are filled with the emotional angst appreciated by many romance readers. Once again, this latest novel is filled with emotional conflict and an intense story line. While the drama is not quite as compelling as previous reads, fans of Ms. Landis should not be disappointed.

I am not a romance novel reader per say. I happened upon this book by accident. Starting reading it to pass the time, and found I couldn't put it down. This may be a romance novel, but the story is beyond captivating. The charachters came to life in my head as I read. This is obviously the first book of Jill Marie Landis's I have read but I'm certain it won't be the last.

I love books by Lavyra Spencer (sp) and have read them all. She stopped writing books and I was CRUSHED. UNTIL I found Jill Marie Landis. Ms. Landis is a great romantic writer!!! I'm really tired of poor girls falling in love with spoiled dukes and princes. This is like real people! YEAH, Keep those books coming!!

Despite all the rave reviews, I wasn't in the mood for a novel set in post-Civil War. Obviously it'd been a while since I read a Jill Marie Landis story because the focus shouldn't have been on the setting at all. I'd forgotten what a great story teller Ms. Landis was - no matter what the era.

Sara and Dru haven't been around each other much but know as all young lovers seem to immediately know that they are meant for each other and thus they marry right before he goes off to join the war. He's young and she's even younger at 17. When Dru gets home 6 years later, everything and everyone has changed, including himself.

Dru's image of the Sara he carried in his heart for the 6 celibate years he was away from her is crushed when he returns and finds his wife with her baby who is much too young to be his child.

How Dru and Sara deal with that and how they grow from that is the crux of this heart wrenching love story. I wet a few pages reading this endearing romance about idealistic young lovers who thought they had the perfect love to two adults who come to realize the meaning of what love is really all about.

The secondary characters also make this book. Louzanna, Jamie, Sara's grandfather Daniel and A little girl crying for her "Woo" have been engraved in my previously-thought-immune-to-boo-hoo-about finctional-characters-heart.

This is a love story revisisted. About redemption. And Ms. Landis has written another keeper for us romance fans.

As Kentucky struggles to recover from the consequences of the Civil War, her people do not easily forget the transgressions of the past. Small town Magnolia Creeks bears the memory of Sara Collier, a widowed woman who dared to flaunt her relationship with a Yankee soldier before disappearing with him. Now the war has ended, and with nowhere else to go, Sara returns to the town that would prefer to reject her and her small child. Only Lou, her former husband's sister, opens her doors to Sara.

Dru Talbet rises from the dead to return home, dreaming of the bride he left behind. Little does he suspect that he has been reported dead. The months and years of surgeon's life during the war have taken their toll, and only the memory of Sara has kept him going. But the war exacts a higher price than just battle service when he's faced with proof of his wife's infidelity. As he sets up practice in Magnolia Creek, he will find the town does not forgive him easily for not forcing Sara to leave immediately. Worse, Dru can neither easily forgive nor forget Sara's infidelity, or his own responsibility in the past.

A bold and daring tale of the aftermath of the Civil War, author Jill Marie Landis creates a searing tale of love and betrayal in MAGNOLIA CREEK. Sara's justifiable infidelity challenges readers' perceptions of right and wrong, even as she wins their hearts with her courage and determination. Dru's own responsibility in events gone awry is not to be dismissed, either, as he struggles with the town's opinion of his wife, his feelings, and his attraction to the woman he struggles to scorn. Secondary characters likewise spring vividly to life from Dru's hysterical sister to the devoted freedman who once lived their slave. With surprising plot turns and entrancing characterizations, readers will be mesmerized by this masterful storyteller's voice. Add this one to the keeper shelf. MAGNOLIA CREEK earns the WordWeaving Award for Excellence.

Don't tell me this scenario didn't happen in history! In fact, I've heard old Civil War songs about the men coming home and finding a strange baby in the house and they hadn't been home in years. So this was great to have it enacted and not to have to pity or imagine it! :)
Just a very interesting story played out well til the end.
A doctor, hard bitten from the War, finally arrives home after all these years and finds his wife has also just returned, with a strangers baby in her arms. The slaves have gone and his innocent sister has had to turn self sufficient.
Theres a lot the story plays on besides romance---yellow fever, war issues, that I was surprised and delighted to find in a romance. It kept me guessing until the end as to the resolution of the young lovers. And the ending is sad. But its unusual to find well written womens civil war stories. Besides Gone With the Wind itself, I recommend this and Ann McMillan's Civil War mysteries.

I nearly went into shock in the aisle when I looked at this book and realized, lo and behold, it wasn't a Western romance nor, and this is the biggie, it wasn't set in England either.
Wow. No overdone "ton" and the hero wasn't a Duke! I wanted
to leap for joy. Are publishers finally beginning to realize there are readers, who would enjoy some variety after several
years of not being offered much?
Not only does the book have a interesting setting and time period but it is a great love story. I loved the hero and
the emotional pull of this story makes it a keeper. I think most romance readers will enjoy it, especially those who have
tired of the usual English/Western stuff.

In 1866, Sara Collier Talbot returns to the Kentucky home of her deceased spouse looking for shelter for her and her little girl, born out of wedlock to a northerner. After her own father recently beat her and rejected her and his granddaughter, further dismissal would not shock Sara. Instead her sister-in-law Louzanna welcomes the fallen woman and her niece "Lissybeth" to live with her.

The next day, Sara's spouse Dr. Dru Talbot comes home after serving time in a northern prison and recovering from amnesia. He is stunned to learn that his beloved, the only reason he survived the war, had cuckolded him with another woman. He cannot even look at her lovechild without ire. As Sara tries to atone for her transgression and regain what she once had before the war, an epidemic threatens to destroy the town.

MAGNOLIA CREEK is an exciting Reconstruction Era romance that is more of a historical character study of the aftermath of the deadly American Civil War. The story line uses coincidence (or as Louzanna felt divine intervention) to move forward the plot yet engages the audience through the trials and tribulations of the lead characters and the secondary cast that does not always end in happily. Fans will understand the dreary pessimism of the locals as Jill Marie Landis makes the audience feel the pain from the loss of loved ones and the suffering from economic ruin.

Harriet Klausner