Customer Reviews

Stealing Home (Sweet Magnolias, Book 1)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maddie Townsend's doctor husband has left her for his pregnant nurse girlfriend. Not only does this stay-at-home mom have no job skills, but her best friends have roped her into managing a fitness spa for women. Her eldest son Ty, the town's star baseball pitcher, suddenly starts failing in everything as the divorce nears. Naturally, Maddie turns to the high school baseball coach, Cal Maddox, for assistance but this only inflames the local gossip and school board. Like the recent schoolboard scandal in Benson, Colorado, the uniformed jealous gossips of Serenity, South Carolina are bent on destruction and retribution. Maddie's life is anything but serene, especially as she feels herself falling for Cal.

A true delight! The portrayal of small town gossip is both realistic and so humorous. This novel is pure fun. Stealing Home is the perfect read for anyone who has ever had their heart broken, now or any time in the past --- the perfect revenge fantasy that makes your heart bigger not nastier.

Maddie Townsend is devastated when her doctor husband announces that not only is he having an affair with his nurse, but she's pregnant and he plans to marry her. His departure destroys the self confidence of older son Tyler, quiets chatty son Kyle, and leaves his daughter wondering when daddy is coming home. With little job experience in her resume, stay-at-home-mom Maddie agrees to join pals Dana Sue and Helen (an attorney that got her a great settlement) in a new business venture - a women's only spa.

When ex-Atlanta Brave Cal Maddox (now Tyler's baseball coach) befriends Maddie, the town gossips are on full alert, and doling out a double standard (okay for Henry to impregnate his nurse while married; not okay for separated Maddie to date the high school coach). Though they are just friends, Maddie is reluctant to become anything more since he is 10 years younger. Henry cannot believe the changes in his ex-wife and wonders if he made the wrong decision. While her children refuse to have anything to do with their father if it includes the woman that destroyed their family, will they have the same reaction when Cal makes his feelings for their mother known?

Judging by the initial entry in Wood's latest trilogy, this time set in picturesque small town Serenity, South Carolina, she has a winner on her hands. Great romance, family dynamics, realistic dialogue for the kids, and wonderfully developed secondary characters stand out and keep the reader glued to the end.

Stealing Home by Sherryl Woods is one of the best "chick lit" books I have read in a while. Maybe I identified with it because the main character's husband left her in a cliched manner. Maybe I identified with a woman struggling to get on her feet after she had been betrayed and trying to keep her kids on their feet as well. Whatever the case may be I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Stealing Home is set in the fictional small town of Serenity, North Carolina. Serenity needs a little boost. Their downtown is slumping. Big box stores have moved in and mom and pop stores have moved out.

Maddie needs a boost too. Her husband of 20 years has left her for his nurse. She thinks she has no marketable skills. She has been a stay-at-home mom for the 16 odd years and has been busy raising their three kids. Stealing Home also has eccentric characters, as all Southern books should. It has a cast of strong female friends who rally around Maddie and her kids. Then enter the love interest--a much younger man and her son's high school baseball coach. The book can only get better from there.

For the faint of heart there is some minor language, but it is not gratuitous. It was used in context mainly when the 16-year-old son is in conflict with his father. There are also some steamy scenes, but I give this a PG rating for alluding to the scenes and not really describing them, which is much better in my mind. It leaves much more to the imagination.

All in all, I loved Stealing Home. I read it in one day when my daughter was home with the stomach flu. I even stayed up late to finish it because I had to know how it would end. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I already feel committed to these characters. I can't wait to read the next 2 books, especially if they are as good as the first.

Armchair Interviews says: A chick lit with a message many women can relate to.

After her husband leaves her for a younger woman, Maddie is faced with making her way in life for herself and her kids' sake. Starting a spa in her small town with her two best friends seems like an insane idea at first, but she grows to love the concept. It's something positive to dwell on while her personal life goes haywire. At the top of her list of troubles are her kids' various reactions to the divorce. The middle son is taking things fairly well, most of the time, but her oldest boy lives in a state of rage that is affecting his grades and performance on the ballfield, while her little girl can't understand why daddy won't come home. Amid the chaos, she finds an ally in Cal Maddox, the baseball coach who has taken an interest in helping her son, Ty, get back on track and an at least equal interest in Maddie herself. Despite the fact that he's ten years her junior, Maddie feels like she's coming back to life when she's with Cal. But, will the kids take to the new man in Mom's life any better than they did to the woman who stole their Dad? Then, the small town gossips start making life a hassle, even to the point of endangering both Cal and Maddie's professional lives. She will have to decide what love is worth.

**** This book proves that a story can be fun without being exactly humorous. Ms. Woods' portrayal of the way small minded gossip works in a small community is spot on, but in contrast, the warmth exuded by the relationships between friends is a joy to see. This definitely qualifies as a feel good, mood lifting story. ****

Amanda Killgore

cute and sweet but boring and predictable. I never really got to know the characters. The anger and sadness from a divorce was not felt by the reader. The love between the two main characters was shallow and developed too quickly. Not interested in book 2.

In Serenity, South Carolina William Henry Townsend deserts his spouse Maddie and their three children for the younger Noreen. The divorce hurts her kids more than the betrayal devastates Maddie. Teenage Tyler is angry all the time and it shows with his grades plummeting; middle child Kyle seems to have adapted to the change though he has some problems with his father remarrying and may just be stoically keeping everything inside; youngest child Katy cannot understand why daddy never comes home to stay.

Needing to escape her personal failures, Maddie jumps on the idea her two best friends Helen and Dana Sue offer of opening up a spa. However, while she struggles with three children, high school baseball coach Cal Maddox tries to provide mentoring to Ty, a player on his team whose performance is in a slump. As Cal and Maddie work with Ty and her other two kids, they begin to fall in love though she is a decade older than he is and both fear the reaction of her youngsters. Neither expected that mean spirited townsfolk would threaten the spa and his coaching position, but it is the children that worry them not the gossips.

STEALING HOME is an interesting family drama that focuses on the trials and tribulations of a single mother raising three children while her former spouse starts a second family. Each of the key characters seem real; for instance Bill like everyone else struggles with change but he also suffers doubts, regrets and sorrow though his pregnant second wife adores him. Fans of deep small town character studies will appreciate this delightful tale of individuals coping with a divorce and extended families differently and look forward to the family drama surrounding Dana Sue.

Harriet Klausner

I will be the first to admit that romances aren't my usual forte. I have always found them to be silly and repetitive, but for some reason, this book hit me just right, even though it all ends happily ever after with a dashing man riding into save the day. Does life really work out that way?

No, I did not spoil the ending, all books in this genre end the same way.

After the sudden breakup of her twentyish year marriage to her high school sweetheart and local pediatrician, Maddie Townsend find herself with no job skills and three children that need food on the table and a roof over their heads. Though no job prospects, she does have friends, and in a small town like Serenity, South Carolina, friends are what help you through this situation, even if it is their suggestion to open a spa and to date your son's baseball coach that is ten years younger and a whole lot more interesting then he should be.

This is the first in the new Sweet Magnolia Series by Sherryl Woods, and though, as I said before, romance isn't my usual, Ms Woods has developed funny character's that find a way to get a job done even if there is a man to ride in and save the day. I guess that is what some look for in their reading, but for those of us who have never seen a white steed, that seems a bit far-fetched.

It is always very exciting to find a new author. This was a good book with believable characters and storyline. I am so looking forward to the next installments of this Sweet Magnolias trilogy.

Thank you Ms Woods.

1st novel of The Sweet Magnolias series. The local baseball (ex-professional) falls in love with his stars high school baseball player mother. The town is in up roar because she is not yet divorced and he is much younger than her.... Maddie's husband has left her with three children to live with is pregnant girlfriend. Her frieds the Sweet Magnolias talk her into opening a spa for women and to give love a chance... Check out the whole series A Slice of Heaven (2) and Feels Like Family (3).

I did like this book - but it would have felt much fresher if I hadn't read it right after reading Jennifer Crusie's TELL ME LIES, which tells a similar story of a cheating husband and a wife who finds a new flame. The Crusie book has more levels, plus a convoluted mystery, although it does not get into the head of the cheating husband as Woods does. I really liked the dialogue, especially for the teen-age and younger kids; it rang true. The small town atmosphere was also well-rendered, with just enough love of gossip and willingness to believe the worst to make it a less than idyllic place to live. The overall tone and the ending were cozy, even if several elements were rather sad. But, then again, divorce is sad no matter how happily some people end up.