FEELS LIKE FAMILY

Author: Sherryl Woods ISBN: 0778324362 4/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MIRA

Helen Decatur spent a lifetime setting goals—getting through college and law school, opening her own practice, becoming financially secure and establishing herself as one of the most highly respected matrimonial attorneys in the state of South Carolina. Achieving those goals was a breeze compared to the one she's faced with now. The most driven—and cynical—of the Sweet Magnolias, Helen is forty-two, single and suddenly ready for the family she's put on the back burner for all these years. Unfortunately, having a child at her age comes with lots of complications, not the least of which is the absence of a serious relationship in her life. But Helen's not the type of woman to wait around for fate to step in. Taking charge of her own destiny puts her at odds with her two best friends, sets sparks flying with a man who doesn't want a family, and leads her straight into the most unexpected complication of all...love.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Sherryl Woods ends her Sweet Magnolia series on a high note with her April release, FEELS LIKE FAMILY. Or does she? After all, she leaves the door wide open by creating a whole new generation of Southern sweethearts, each one lined up and ready to take her place next to the original trio of Magnolias, Maddie, Dana Sue and Helen.

FEELS LIKE FAMILY feels exactly that—like family. Although this book mainly focuses upon Helen, a workaholic lawyer whose biological clock is ticking away and decides it's now or never to have a child, all of the characters we've grown close to from the past two installments in this series, STEALING HOME and A SLICE OF HEAVEN, reappear randomly throughout the storyline. Not only do we catch up on the latest about Maddie and Dana Sue, we become more familiar with Erik and Karen, two of Dana Sue's chefs, and Elliott, the personal trainer who works in the spa run by the Sweet Magnolias. All have important and integral parts to play in FEEL LIKE FAMILY, some much more than others.

Just as she has in the past two books, Ms. Woods once again touches upon true-life topics, this time single motherhood and all the complications that come with it. Using Helen as someone who is financially secure and can certainly raise a child without struggling, for contrast Woods gives us Karen, a divorced mother of two who works for Dana Sue and struggles each day to make ends meet. Adequate daycare, coping with sick children and struggling to pay her bills without the help of her ex, Karen shows the more common reality of what it's like to raise a child alone. It's a sobering contrast and one that's not lost upon Helen as she struggles with her yearning to get pregnant and raise the child on her own. There's also more drama in this book as elements of Helen's career take what could be a deadly turn for her, a turn straight out of the headlines of today.

I've really enjoyed my visits to the small town of Serenity and the eclectic mix of people that live there, and I really do hope that Woods has plans to revisit this community sometime in the future. It's an excellent and very well written true-to-life series that I, for one, am sorry to see come to an end.

Nancy Davis