Sherryl Woods, Stealing Home

Stealing Home

Sherryl Woods

Mira, Feb 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0778323633

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