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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another 5-star read from Sherryl Woods, February 29, 2008
This review is from: Seaview Inn (Mass Market Paperback)
Hanna Mathews is one tough woman. She prides herself as being able to do it all. She has survived breast cancer and is a single mother with a daughter in college. But now things are getting to be too much.
Hanna recently lost her own mother to cancer. After her mother's death, she decides to go persuade Jenny, her eighty-five-year-old grandmother, to sell the Seaview Inn and go into a retirement home. She takes two weeks off work to go to Seaview Key. Then grandma talks her into doing renovations to the Inn. As if that's not enough work for her, she gets a call that her daughter is coming home from college-and she's pregnant.
One day Luke Stevens shows up at Seaview Key, and now Hanna has to deal with an old crush as well. Luke feels like the place was home twenty years ago and needs to be there to clear his head. But Luke has some issues as well. He was in Iraq, his wife left him for his best friend, his kids are mad at him for leaving, and he has a bum leg. While he is helping to do renovations at the Inn, he finds himself falling in love with Hanna as well as his old hometown.
Grandma Jenny might be old but she's feisty and sees things that others don't. She is having help to get the renovations done and the Inn up and running again. And with a little push maybe she can get two people to see things for what they are.
Hanna and Luke are learning it feels good to be home. People call you by your name and know you, unlike in the city where you are just another passerby. Plus there are the perks of the peace and quiet and those strolls on the beach-and don't forget the memories of sitting on the porch, enjoying the breeze and hanging out.
Luke and Hanna are trying to get their lives on track. The flirting has started and it could be love.
Armchair Interviews says: A sweet love story.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Seaview Inn, April 12, 2008
This review is from: Seaview Inn (Mass Market Paperback)
SEAVIEW INN by Sherryl Woods
Rating *** ½ (3.5/5 Stars)
April 12, 2008
This reviewer has wanted to read a book by Sherryl Woods for quite some time, and now got the chance to review SEAVIEW INN, Woods' latest novel for Harlequin's Mira imprint. A pleasant surprise, the story was filled with a number of interesting characters that shared nearly equally billing with the main character, Hannah Matthews. While in some novels too many characters can overwhelm a reader, in SEAVIEW INN there is no such problem. The length of the book allowed the author to create a number of vital characters that were pivotal to the plot without fashioning them into flat one-dimensional people whose only purpose was to add to the story line. Each character was as well rounded and real and absorbing enough to sustain interest for the reader.
SEAVIEW INN revolves around Hannah Matthews, a single mom who is in remission from breast cancer. Her mother had just died from the same disease, and it's not surprising that Hannah is a little scared, wondering if the cancer is going to reappear just like it did for her mother.
Besides dealing with cancer, Hannah needs to take care of her elderly grandmother. Grandma Jenny is getting on in years, and Hannah believes that Grandma needs to be placed into a home where people can look out for her. In the mean time, they need to sell the old Seaview Inn that has been in the family for generations. Grandma refuses to cooperate, and instead is trying to reopen the inn, to Hannah's frustration.
To complicate matters, Luke Stevens is back in town. Luke was at one time Hannah's best friend's boyfriend, but Hannah had always had a big crush on Luke, never letting anyone know because she didn't want to embarrass herself or ruin her friend's happiness. Luke doesn't tell anyone that he has just returned from Iraq some six months ago, and is still dealing with the injury he received in his leg, as well as the pain in his heart.
Hannah's college age daughter Kelsey is also having problems. She's announced to Hannah that she is pregnant, but she does not want the baby, nor does she want to marry the father, Jeff, despite the fact that she loves him. Kelsey returns to Seaview Inn to be with Hannah and Grandma Jenny to sort things out.
Grandma Jenny makes good use of Kelsey and Luke, as they help Grandma by getting the Inn back in shape in time for the grand re-opening. Hannah hopes this will help them sell the inn faster, but Kelsey has other plans - to run the Inn that she will eventually inherit after her Grandma Jenny passes away.
And now that Luke is back in town, Hannah's old high school crush has returned, but she thinks that her life will be cut short with the return of the cancer. She refuses to make any commitments to him, or anyone else.
SEAVIEW INN moves at a moderate pace, but has a lot of important subplots that keep the book moving along. What this reviewer felt while reading the book was that it was almost like a `cozy' read. This doesn't mean that there weren't any conflicts or climatic scenes. The theme of cancer and death was very evident in Hannah's story line; however, with Hannah's focus on the here and now, the reader will often forget she is recovering from a devastating illness. It is only when Hannah starts to contemplate her mortality, and her doctor and best friend constantly call her from New York to find out when she is returning for her follow up exam, that the reader is reminded that she is still not safe from the cancer.
This reviewer really enjoyed the book. The characters were natural and fit in well with the story. The setting, a beach side inn in the Florida Keys, was perfect. SEAVIEW INN is recommended for all readers who love contemporary women's fiction and want an escape. But be warned: there still may be a few tears while reading this book, but overall, SEAVIEW INN is a pleasant enjoyable read. - courtesy of Loveromancesandmore. Com - M. Lofton
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dissappointing Selection, August 27, 2009
Ms. Woods does an outstanding job in dealing with issues surrounding breast cancer, not only in how she shows how Hanna deals with the loss of her mother to this savage disease, but also in how Hanna personally battles it. I speak with some authority having witnessed my wife survive a particularly deadly version of breast cancer. Many kudos for this!
Also well done are the issues faced by wounded members of our military as they return and try to pick up the lives they left behind. Although this is not a major theme, it is well addressed throughout the book. Kudos!
She also expertly illustrates the multiple issues involved when couples find it necessary to divorce when children are involved. The multi generational repercussions are varied and deeply felt. I particularly loved the opening of the scene where Hanna finally is reunited with her father after decades of no contact. It brought tears to my eyes. However, for me, Ms. Woods dropped the ball when she allowed the scene to deteriorate from the very positive, upbeat opening to a much less positive conclusion. After such an upbeat beginning to her reunion with her father, I had a hard time understanding why Hanna suddenly turned negative and fled, at the same time refusing to meet with her step brother who was waiting in the wings and to meet her. Not realistic!
I also believe that, since the subject was on the table, the issues Hanna and her father had with Hanna's step mother and how these issues were resolved would have added much to the story line. As it is, much was made of the potential antagonism between the step mother and Hanna's side of the family, but only a sentence or two were used in its resolution. Ms. Woods also failed to show how Hanna and her father resolved the feelings of rejection Hanna had experienced over many years. Not good!
I did not buy the way Ms. Woods justified Luke's unilateral decision to abandon his medical practice, his wife, and his young children to volunteer for military duty as an orthopedic surgeon in Iraq. She tried to show Luke as a hero for this supposedly unselfish act. That did not work for me. What real hero would make such an important decision without discussing it first with his business partner, his wife, and his children, all of whom would be impacted greatly by that decision? This part of the storyline reveals no heroism. It shows lack of consideration, self-centeredness and selfishness, all traits no hero character should possess. How much better the story would have evolved if Luke's detour to Iraq had been the result of something like a recall to active duty over which Luke had no control. As this issue was one of the major subjects addressed in the story, I find its handling to be a significant detraction to the book. Not good!
Finally, the prospect was raised for Hanna to explore writing children's books as a possible replacement vocation for a job in New York. Why bring this possibility up if it was not to be pursued? Although it was the perfect solution to a major road block in Hanna's life, this issue was dropped as if a publication word limit had been reach without sufficient time to make any adjustments.
Bottom line: Seaview Inn is an outstanding, well written, intriguing story. However, like a batch of chocolate chip cookies where a few chocolate chips have been replaced with doggie do, the resulting product is ruined. Three Stars!
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