Stealing Home (A Sweet Magnolias Novel, 0) Mass Market Paperback – January 19, 2010

It started out okay, but as I got further into the story, I began to regret this purchase. It was soooooo drawn out and boring. Maddie the future ex wife, got on my nerves quickly with her doormat personality and Bill, the cheating piece of crap husband was the world’s biggest douchebag. No one batted an eye at the fact that the cheating dirtbag pediatrician knocked up his nurse, who was only 8 years older than his son, WHILE he was still married. They walked around town while she sported her huge baby bump. Didn’t slow down business a bit. The wife however, has pizza with her son’s coach and the whole town is out for blood. They practically had a trial. Beyond stupid. I barely made it through the rest of the story. I won’t read anymore of the series because I hated almost the entire town of Serenity. Everyone was so judgmental. It was like a Peyton Place. The writer seemed out of touch with current times. No thanks to anymore of this series.

I started reading the book becAuse I loved the first season of Sweet Magnolias on Netflix. I usually find the book better than tv but not in this case. The book is drawn out, unrealistic and boring. Do not waste 7.99 on this.

Typical story, girl and boy meet, girl see conflict in being with boy, boy stands up for girl and the rest is sappy history. Maddie (main character) and Dr. Bill (cheating ex-husband) are the worst characters in the story. You just want to slap the crap to both of them, one for being a "whoa is me, I can't date you, what will the town say." to just an idiot (no offense to idiots). The only redeemable characters are Tyler (Maddie's son who has a backbone) and Helen (fiesty attorney). Dana Sue (chef and not great mother) doesn't want to admit that her child may have an eating disorder and let's her daughter tell her that she won't to go to the doctor. Do kids really get to decide if they go to the doctor or not?I'm still trying to figure out why the author would think that women from Charleston would drive to a podunk town( I live in a podunk town outside of Atlanta) to go to a spa that is 25 miles away from Charleston. It seems a bit far-fetched. This book seemed to be a step above a Harlequin romance or a dollar store romance novel.

I was introduced to this author, because of the TV show.I generally prefer to read the books first and then watch the TV show.I really enjoyed the book so much better.Helen, Dana Sue, and Maddie are the Sweet Magnolia's.Best friends forever and living in a small town has it's benefits and it's trials.Everyone is there to lend a hand, but they also get up in your business.When Maddie's marriage falls apart, because her husband leaves her for a younger woman who he's gotten pregnant. She is left to pick up the pieces and hold it together for their three children who are angry and confused.When their oldest boy's coach steps in to help with the attitude adjustment that Ty needs, he never realized he'd fall for his mother.With the town in an uproar, they find themselves defending their friendship.This is a story of friendship and love, that will make you want to keep reading the whole series to see what everyone is up to. 😊

Buy the first three books, maybe even the fourth. They are all good reads. After that, you've got the story. Don't bother buying the rest. The story becomes rather repetitive: The insecure woman with bad experiences from the past is making a lot of fuss trying to trust and/or forgive the near perfect hunk (that also may have bad experiences but the woman means more). The Magnolias becomes ever more intrusive and respectless when it comes to gossiping and pushing their friends around, and their once tight group is expanded any time a female with guy problems shows up in the story.Even when the group starts to exceed 10 grown up women they have all the time in the world for margarita nights and helping each other out starting businesses or handling men, besides full time jobs, growing families, and regular excercise, of course. The exercise is really needed though, I never knew anyone drinking so many milkshakes or eating so much pizza or restaurant food as these guys.Also, after a while even the author seems to lose control of details from the earlier books, like relations and character names.The guys line up, one more perfect than the other, taking all the bullying from their women in a stride.A shame, really, the writing is really good and the descriptions of the town and the side stories, but the story of the main characters remains mainly the same in every single book! Time to come up with something new, Sherryl!

An easy read and a good book for a day or two at he beach. The age old story of a wife and mother finding her life changing when her husband of twenty years asks for a divorce to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Of course, the three kids, 16,14, and 6, are devastated and develop problems. The 16 year old is a more than promising baseball player and a good student. However, his rebellion against his father displays itself in the classroom and on the baseball field. The Sweet Magnolias rally to the rescue and offer Maddie, the about to be divorced friend, an opportunity to join them in opening a Spa. Then there's the hunky baseball coach who not only notices the change in his star player but also his more than attractive mother. Just as the divorce is about to become final the erring father decides he wants to regain his family. By this time the Spa is open, Maddie and the coach have something going, and the entire town is in an uproar over it all. Will Maddie start a new life with the man she loves or will she go back to the unfaithful husband for the sake of her kid?. Well, you'll have to read it to find out.

This was a lovely sweet read, one that lulled me into a relaxed state, perfect on a night I couldn’t sleep.Maddie finds her world dramatically and unexpecting changing, after 20 years of marriage she finds out that her husband has been cheating on her with the nurse he works with, and that he has decided to leave her for the significantly younger pregnant mistress. This leaves Maddie to deal with the emotional turmoil of her 3 kids and town gossip. Luckily Maddie has some fab friends who are with her every step of the way, a cool mum who has her back, loyal kids, and a strength that means she will do more than simply survive.I loved how Maddie’s boys were so loyal to her, and were not blind to their father’s failings, from personal experience as a child in such a situation I know how hard it can be on the mum/the parent with the kids. My heart also ached a little for the confusion and pain the kids felt, especially the youngest of the 3 - Maddie’s 6-year-old daughter, the author did quite well in depicting the emotional mess that can occur in such a situation.The mistress/girlfriend/finance was so dense in this, I found myself cursing and blinking at her behaviour. Seriously she was so obtuse at times.Former baseball player and school coach Cal (who also happens to be 10 years younger than Maddie, take that idiot ex-husband) was just what Maddie deserved. He’s loyal, hot, caring, honest, and recognises the fabulousness that Maddie is. Maddie has a fierceness that she puts to good use when the town starts to butt in and the claws come out as jealousy rears its ugly head.The ex-husband in this was a cheating douchebag, but he was also blinkered and showed a lack of awareness/care when it came to what Maddie would want/desire. For example, once the women he cheated on leaves him because she senses he regrets them and doesn’t love her as he should (eye roll), he decides to go and tell Maddie (during her birthday party – a birthday he forgot about) that he wants to give them another go, and that she should do what’s best for the family – in his mind that means getting back together with him. Thank goodness she doesn’t even need to think about it before she says NO – much to my delight. I won’t lie I did smile with glee, thinking hah take that you idiot.This is a slow burn small-town romance, where the heroine has a backbone of steel, is an awesome mum and once she decides not to put up with bullshit in the form of her ex and town gossip, she rocks at embracing her future and all it holds.

When I saw that Netflix were dramatising the sweet magnolia books and Netgalley asked me to review the first two books in the series I was delighted.Stupidly I read book two first so a bit of the surprises had already been discovered however this was a great enjoyable book and had I read it in order it would have been even better.Maddie, Daba Sue and Helen are the Sweet Magnolias of Aerenity. The girls are there for each other through thick and thin and in this book its focusing on the unrest for Maddie a mother of 3 and married to a Dr who has just announced he is leaving her after 20 years of marriage for his nurse.During the fallout the Magnolias decide she needs a project and managing the Corner House Spa bring Maddies confidence back up after all she's been through. But is a new love coming over the horizon and is she brave enough to go for it..The characters are great and I cant wait till book 3.. I loved this book and have recommended it to friends.

This is an enjoyable enough romance between Maddie, who is recently divorced, and Cal, her son's baseball coach. Small town talk and interference cause problems as do the age difference between them, and Maddie's ex-husband and children. Maddie has to work out what she wants and fight to retain it.I mostly enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and thought that the children were not too precocious. I thought that Maddie's breakup with her husband and the aftermath was well done and realistic.The problem which I had was with the small town mentality and gossip. The author likes small towns and thinks that their way of life is attractive but it doesn't come over that way in this book. Local opposition to the match between Maddie and Cal is so great that apparently there is even reference to it in the local paper. In a cringe-making scene which I sincerely hope is not based on employment law practices in America Cal has to justify what he does in his spare time before his employers, the local townspeople and the pupils he teaches. I cannot understand why Cal and Maddy didn't just move somewhere else and I fail to believe that small town life is as attractive as all the characters seem to think based on this episode.

Great book to read, such a feel good read and enjoyed reading about the people in the story. Happy endings I like. Have not read any of Sherry Woods books before and having enjoyed this one will definitely take a look at her other works. Would recommend to others who enjoy a storyline with good ending. Enjoy

A great story with a solid storyline & characters you can relate to. Nothing like a chick lit romance to get lost in