Seaview Inn (Mass Market Paperback)

by Sherryl Woods (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
New York PR exec Hannah Mathews is in remission from the same disease that claimed her mother's life months before: breast cancer. She heads south in an attempt to persuade her 85-year-old grandma, Jenny, to sell the Seaview Inn, the Florida Keys resort owned by her family for decades, and move into a retirement home. Spry and headstrong, Grandma Jenny isn't ready to be put out to pasture, intending to spruce up the inn and reopen for business. Hannah's daughter, Kelsey, turns up pregnant; she plans to drop out of college, live at Seaview and put her baby up for adoption. Surgeon Luke Stevens, Hannah's high school crush, shows up shortly thereafter, fresh from a stint in war-torn Iraq and carrying his own set of emotional baggage. A seasoned romance novelist of more than 100 titles, Woods is a master heartstring puller, and her endearingly flawed characters deal with their plethora of problems in a predictable but satisfying manner. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
Hannah survives her mastectomy but wonders if she can survive her family. A single mother and high-powered New York public relations dynamo, she left tiny Seaview Key off the Florida coast after college and never looked back. Now she finds herself at the family inn trying to talk her 85-year-old grandmother into retiring after Hannah’s mother’s death from breast cancer. To make matters even more complicated, Hannah’s 20-year-old daughter leaves college and joins her because she is pregnant. What’s a woman do with such a mess? Why not take up with her high-school crush? Of course, Luke has his own problems. Injured in Iraq, he returns home to find that his wife has left him for his medical practice partner, and his young children treat him like a stranger. As Hannah and Luke learn to take each day one at a time as love and hope bloom, Woods imbues her characters with determination and humanity, deftly shedding light on real-life dramas. --Patty Engelmann

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Mira (March 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778325296
• ISBN-13: 978-0778325291
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,899 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another 5-star read from Sherryl Woods, February 29, 2008

By	armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Seaview Inn, April 12, 2008

By	Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Endearing second chance story, June 6, 2008

By	Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Breast cancer-survivor Hannah Matthews is back in her Florida Keys hometown to convince her aging grandmother that she needs to sell the family inn and move to a retirement community. But her grandma Jenny instead goes on a campaign to get Hannah to fall in love with the home she fled years earlier. Also back on Seaview Key is Orthopedic Surgeon and Desert Storm veteran Luke Stevens, who returned from service injured, only to find that his wife has left him for his partner. Hannah suddenly finds herself assisting Jenny in getting the inn ready for guests, and is shocked to discover that her grandmother has elicited assistance from Luke, the object of her teenage crush. As Luke tentatively reclaims his family with the assistance of Hannah, the two explore their feelings for each other, but Hannah is not ready to give her heart away, while her cancer is in remission.

Woods latest series set in the tiny hamlet of Seaview Key is an enchanting story of second chances. With a secondary romance between Hannah's pregnant daughter Kelsey and her college sweetheart, the story has plenty of heart and packs an emotional wallop as Hannah learns to trust again, as well as share her fears and feelings with Luke.