Stealing Home

Stealing Home: The Sweet Magnolias

By Sherryl Woods

Published 2007

For the Sweet Magnolias, friendship lasts a lifetime...

Maddie Townsend might live in a town called Serenity and have the best friends a woman could ask for, but her life is overturned when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. With her three children heartbroken from the change, Maddie has a lot to contend with. On top of it all, after years outside the workforce, she must dust off her business skills to take charge of her best friends' newest project--planning the town's only fitness spa for women.

When her son's developing anger issues begin to affect his passion for baseball, Maddie knows she must step in to help. She didn't expect to develop feelings for her son's coach, the handsome Cal Maddox, and to learn he has feelings for her, too. But gossip travels quickly in a small town, and Maddie and Cal's relationship may threaten both their reputations and careers.

Then again, he could be the one man in all of South Carolina who can help her find serenity after all.

My overall review is four stars. 

I thought this was a lovely romance story. Set in a small town it is a little bit of what you expect and a little bit what you don't. As Maddie had her heart broken by a cheating ex, it made it really easy for me to relate to her and even easier for me to simply love the book. The truth that is poured out in the emotion of this woman on the page is so very real. And then to have to contend with feelings of somthing new so soon after? It is a struggle! This character went through what I literally lived. 

I mentioned to the friend who recommended this book to me, Woods does an amazing job at voicing what a teenager would actually be saying and doing in this situation. Makes me wonder if she interviewed parents and kids of divorce to find stories of what they went through. 

You better believe I have the Netflix series, based on these books, on my "to watch" list. Planning to watch it just as soon as I finish reading these books (only 11 of them!) 

I also really love that this book has a solid ending, even though there are more books in this series. More authors could take lessons from Woods on this one. Just because your book is part of a series, doesn't mean your plot has to have a cliffhanger to keep people coming back for more. If your characters are interesting enough, readers will keep picking your books up.