Review - - Swan Point

Swan Point

By Sherryl Woods

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

Release Date: July 29, 2014

Adelia Hernandez is recently divorced from her faithless husband and is beginning to make a new life for herself and her four children, ages eight to thirteen. Some members of her traditional Catholic family may still be unhappy with her decision to end her marriage, but Adelia knows she made the right choice. She has moved into a new home in Swan Point, an older area of her hometown, and her boss, Raylene Rollins, is so pleased with Adelia’s contributions at Chic, a clothing boutique, that she promotes her to manager. Raylene even talks to Adelia about a partnership. After years with a husband who did nothing but find fault with her, Adelia basks in praise for a job well done and her belief in her ability to insure that her children are healthy and happy grows stronger. She’s not even thinking about a romantic relationship, at least not until she meets Gabe Franklin.

Gabe Franklin grew up in Serenity, a rebel with a chip on his shoulder, ashamed and defensive about his mother whose drinking and promiscuity made her a ready target for town gossip. He left town soon after his mother’s death, but he has returned determined to show the town that he is no longer the angry troublemaker he was. He’s grateful to have a job as second in command in the construction company belonging to his cousin but he’s not certain he’s in Serenity for the long term. He is certain, however, that he is not the man for permanent relationships. His attraction to Adelia Hernandez may be strong, but he respects her concern about her children. They all deserve better than another man who will move in and out of their lives. 

Adelia and Gabe have to fight not only their own attraction to one another, but also all the well-intentioned friends who encourage the match. Even Adelia’s kids are soon won over by Gabe. On the other side are some members of Adelia’s family and her slimeball ex-husband. But the greatest obstacle the two have to overcome on their way to an HEA is Gabe’s own uncertainty that he can ever be husband and father material.

The eleventh book in Woods’s popular Sweet Magnolias series, Swan Point is a sweet romance heavy on small-town interactions and very light on sensuality. Although this book is not an inspirational, it is essentially a kisses-only romance. Readers of the series will be familiar with Adelia’s backstory and will be pleased to see her gaining self-esteem and taking definite steps toward creating a new life after her divorce. Gabe is appealing as a man who wants to change the reputation he acquired in his misspent youth and as one who still bears scars from his past. Some readers will find that his interactions with Adelia’s children add to his appeal. When Adelia’s teenage daughter circulates a photo of Gabe in tiara and boa at a tea party with her younger sisters, his reputation as a good guy is pretty much sealed.

Doubtless Sweet Magnolia fans will be delighted to see many characters from earlier novels in the series playing minor roles in this one. I think that reactions to this latest in the long-running series will be determined by the level of devotion to this author generally and to other books she has set in Serenity, South Carolina. While I have enjoyed some books in the series, I found this one a too-predictable read, and for me the moments of genuine sweetness were not enough to overcome a setting that is weak in Southern flavor and a real sense of Adelia’s culture. If you like sweet small-town romances and have never read Woods, I recommend you start with the early books in this series or in her Chesapeake Shores series to see her at her best.  

~Janga

Guest Review - - Where Azaleas Bloom

Where Azaleas Bloom

By Sherryl Woods

Publisher: Harlequin Mira

Release Date: August 28, 2012

Lynn Morrow and her husband Ed are still fighting over custody and support issues, but she has accepted that her marriage is over. What she can’t accept is that he is late with mortgage payments and support checks, and even with her part-time job at Raylene Rollins’s boutique, by the end of the month, she’s struggling to feed her two children. Fourteen-year-old Lexie is growing up too fast and worrying about grown-up problems, and ten-year-old Jeremy doesn’t understand why his favorite after-school snacks are no longer available.

Contractor Mitch Franklin has known Lynn since they were kids. He even had an unrequited crush on her in middle school, but she had eyes for no one but Ed Morrow even then. Mitch is a widower with two college-age sons, and while loved his wife Amy deeply and knows that in a sense he always will, he also realizes that he is ready to move on with his life.

Mitch is building a new family room onto the house of Raylene and Carter Rollins (Honeysuckle Summer), and Lynn and her children live next door to the Rollins family.  Raylene and Carter consider Mitch family and often include him in their dinner plans, and since Raylene suspects Lynn is having financial problems, she invites her and the kids for dinner as frequently as she can without wounding Lynn’s pride. Thus, Lynn and Mitch are thrown into one another’s company.  An observant guy, he soon realizes that Lynn is struggling. He offers his friendship, and when he discovers Lynn needs a second job, he hires her as part-time bookkeeper for his company, a job she can do from home and still be around for Lexie and Jeremy.

It doesn’t take long for Mitch to discover that he wants more than friendship from Lynn. She takes some convincing because she is wary of giving her heart again, but Mitch, who looks great in a pair of jeans and makes her feel cherished and respected, is hard to resist. But just as it looks as if the two have found their way to happiness, complications ensue in the form of an ex-husband, sons who aren’t happy at the idea of their dead mom being replaced, and the kind of gossip at which small towns excel.

Where Azaleas Bloom is the tenth book in Sherryl Woods’s Sweet Magnolias series. The series has suffered from some unevenness, but this one is a heart-warming, believable second chance at love story. In a society where most women experience a 45-73 percent decrease in the quality of life after divorce, Lynn’s economic woes ring true, as does her anger at her estranged husband’s irresponsibility towards his children and her guilt, however unreasonable, over a failed marriage. 

Her determination to protect her children from the things that worry her and to affirm that their father loves them regardless of his actions also seems authentic. Even Lynn’s pride and reluctance to let friends know about her problems are understandable.

It’s easy to fall in love with Mitch. He’s a good guy, compassionate and patient with a keen sense of honor and an instinctive understanding of kids. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s good-looking and a tender, skilled lover. The fact that he was engaged in a happy, faithful marriage for twenty-two years makes his desire to fall in love again and share his life logical. I also found his adult sons’ reactions to their father’s romance realistic.

I suspected the ending of Ed’s story well before it was revealed, although not from the beginning of Lynn’s story. Having lived through a similar experience with a close friend, I had no problem believing this subplot, but I would like to have seen more evidence that he realized the effect of his actions on his children.

As with all the Sweet Magnolia books, friendship is a strong thread in WAB. Lynn is not a Sweet Magnolia, but the women support her and draw her into their circle. The friendship theme encompasses Mitch’s relationship with Raylene and Carter, Lexie’s besties relationship with Carter’s sister Mandy, and even Lynn and Mitch’s friendship that turns to love. Fans of the series will enjoy seeing more of Raylene and Carter and, in smaller roles, other Magnolias and spouses.  Some may even remember Mitch as the contractor who built The Corner Spa in the first Sweet Magnolia book, Stealing Home.

Sweet Magnolias fans won’t want to miss this one. For readers who lost interest with the second generation stories, this one and Chasing Fireflies, Book 9, are both well worth a return to the series, And for those who have never read Sherryl Woods, if you like romance heavily flavored with sweetness and small-town relationships, I think you’ll enjoy this visit to Serenity, South Carolina, and you don’t have to have read the other books to enjoy this one.

~Janga
http://justjanga.blogspot.com