Rating: 
Summary: actually more of a 3+/ 4-......
Review: Although Landis is not a favorite author of mine I favor civil war era stories so gave this one a chance. The plot was very unique. Frankly I never gave a thought to what the returning soldiers would find at home....especially given the years it took some of them to regain their health, freedom and get home. This surely put that in perspective. The characters were very realistic and quite wonderful. Landis makes her meaningful points very subtly throughout the book with the various relationships and issues that arise. I rated this less than a 5 only because our heroine is a backwoods gal, much like 'Tammy" in the old movies and the author put too much emphasis on the 'voodoo charm witches brew' medicine of that backwoods culture. Although it didn't take much away from the story itself, I just found it distracting. Sarah herself was everything a heroine should be with a great deal of perseverence, heart and courage. Although our hero, Dru, eventually comes to care for her little daughter, lissybeth, it is barely noticeable to the reader. You have to look for it and I think that precious little girl deserved more than a token
acceptance. A better than average book for sure.........not one I would read a 2nd time so not for my keeper shelf but it may be for yours.
Rating: 
Summary: Something different for a change
Review: Despite all the rave reviews, I wasn't in the mood for a novel set in post-Civil War. Obviously it'd been a while since I read a Jill Marie Landis story because the focus shouldn't have been on the setting at all. I'd forgotten what a great story teller Ms. Landis was - no matter what the era.
Sara and Dru haven't been around each other much but know as all young lovers seem to immediately know that they are meant for each other and thus they marry right before he goes off to join the war. He's young and she's even younger at 17. When Dru gets home 6 years later, everything and everyone has changed, including himself.Dru's image of the Sara he carried in his heart for the 6 celibate years he was away from her is crushed when he returns and finds his wife with her baby who is much too young to be his child. How Dru and Sara deal with that and how they grow from that is the crux of this heart wrenching love story. I wet a few pages reading this endearing romance about idealistic young lovers who thought they had the perfect love to two adults who come to realize the meaning of what love is really all about. The secondary characters also make this book. Louzanna, Jamie, Sara's grandfather Daniel and A little girl crying for her "Woo" have been engraved in my previously-thought-immune-to-boo-hoo-about finctional-characters-heart. This is a love story revisisted. About redemption. And Ms. Landis has written another keeper for us romance fans.
Rating:
Summary: Attention getting
Review: Don't tell me this scenario didn't happen in history! In fact, I've heard old Civil War songs about the men coming home and finding a strange baby in the house and they hadn't been home in years. So this was great to have it enacted and not to have to pity or imagine it! :)
Just a very interesting story played out well til the end.
A doctor, hard bitten from the War, finally arrives home after all these years and finds his wife has also just returned, with a strangers baby in her arms. The slaves have gone and his innocent sister has had to turn self sufficient.
Theres a lot the story plays on besides romance---yellow fever, war issues, that I was surprised and delighted to find in a romance. It kept me guessing until the end as to the resolution of the young lovers. And the ending is sad. But its unusual to find well written womens civil war stories. Besides Gone With the Wind itself, I recommend this and Ann McMillan's Civil War mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Wonderful Book
Review: Dr. Dru Talbot has returned from the Civil War looking forward to the life he will lead with his "new" wife Sara. When he returns home he discovers he's in for the shock of his life. Sara is there, having just returned herself, but she's not alone. With her is her daughter, who is way to young to belong to Dru. Sara was lead to believe Dru was dead and being the naive, backwoods girl she was, fell under the spell of a Yankee soldier, who used her and left her with a baby. Sara returns to Kentucky and is an outcast by everyone except Dru's mentally disturbed sister, who takes her in. Can the damage done to this family be repaired??? Can mistakes be forgiven??? Can love conquer all??? This book was absolutely wonderful. It was so easy to read and had characters who seemed completely believable and sincere. I agree with the other reviewer that it is nice to read books about characters other than the ton and royalty. It is great to read about our country and the past it has with characters who are written to fit right in to the time period. The characters were well developed and the storyline seemed to be well thought out before the author started writing the book. If you love romances or books about America's history you will love Magnolia Creek. Magnolia Creek was such a good read that I had the book finished in just two days! It was just too good to put down. I just love a book that leaves you wanting more after the last page and this book definitely does that. These characters seem so real that they become part of you and you miss them when you are finished. This was my first Jill Marie Landis book and I guarantee it won't be my last! A great book to be read again and again.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Wonderful Book
Review: Dr. Dru Talbot has returned from the Civil War looking forward to the life he will lead with his "new" wife Sara. When he returns home he discovers he's in for the shock of his life. Sara is there, having just returned herself, but she's not alone. With her is her daughter, who is way to young to belong to Dru. Sara was lead to believe Dru was dead and being the naive, backwoods girl she was, fell under the spell of a Yankee soldier, who used her and left her with a baby. Sara returns to Kentucky and is an outcast by everyone except Dru's mentally disturbed sister, who takes her in. Can the damage done to this family be repaired??? Can mistakes be forgiven??? Can love conquer all??? This book was absolutely wonderful. It was so easy to read and had characters who seemed completely believable and sincere. I agree with the other reviewer that it is nice to read books about characters other than the ton and royalty. It is great to read about our country and the past it has with characters who are written to fit right in to the time period. The characters were well developed and the storyline seemed to be well thought out before the author started writing the book. If you love romances or books about America's history you will love Magnolia Creek. Magnolia Creek was such a good read that I had the book finished in just two days! It was just too good to put down. I just love a book that leaves you wanting more after the last page and this book definitely does that. These characters seem so real that they become part of you and you miss them when you are finished. This was my first Jill Marie Landis book and I guarantee it won't be my last! A great book to be read again and again.
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING!!!!
Review: I am not a romance novel reader per say. I happened upon this book by accident. Starting reading it to pass the time, and found I couldn't put it down. This may be a romance novel, but the story is beyond captivating. The charachters came to life in my head as I read. This is obviously the first book of Jill Marie Landis's I have read but I'm certain it won't be the last.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as some of her others
Review: I find with Jill Marie Landis that it's either hit or miss, I loved "Blue Moon" and "After All", but some of her others I simply couldn't get into. "Magnolia Creek" fell somewhere in the middle.
This is a story set in the Civil War, where Dru and Sara were married for a very short time when Dru went off to war as a doctor. When he returned - years later - he found Sara back home - with a child that was not his. This story deals with how Dru and Sara handle this and are able to get over it.
Just one problem - when Sara explained her side of the story, I simply did not see that there was a problem at all. From where I sit, Sara did not do anything really wrong, maybe only a small lapse of judgment, and from then on I found Dru's reaction not-understandable. It's one thing when he walked in and was hit in the head with it - so to speak - quite another when he gets the explanation and still reacts like she did something terrible - well, Dru did not come across as my favorite hero, at all.
And Sara as the heroine was not too much better either. Okay, she's a pretty nice person, and a good person, but she does some small, but stupid things in this novel that make me like her alot less. First, there is all this stuff about her grandaddy's charms. I have no problem with charms, and I'm sure her grandaddy helped alot of people, and in those days charms were probably almost as good as real medicine - almost, but not quite. She herself explains how the charms work - the placebo effect, so to speak.
but she IS married to a doctor - you'd think she'd have a little bit of respect for his profession - even if she really DID think her charms worked better than his medicine (doubtful) - have a little respect for your husband, please? If I go to a doctor, and the doctor examines me and gives me a prescription to follow, and on the way out the nurse whispers to me - take this herb, it'll work - how long do you think the nurse will be working for that doctor? And if that person would be his wife - well, I don't know about you, but I would be wondering about the state of their marriage, wouldn't you? And this is supposed to be a romance novel.
Jill Marie Landis has her formula - she writes decently, with a strong emphasis on emotional depth, in which she explores her characters - why they do things, how they feel as they are doing it, etc. Sometimes this formula works for me, sometimes it doesn't. I suspect this has to do with how much I like the h/h - in a character driven novel, this is essential. And I just couldn't like these two characters that much.
I would rate this only an average read, that's how it was for me.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC
Review: I love books by Lavyra Spencer (sp) and have read them all. She stopped writing books and I was CRUSHED. UNTIL I found Jill Marie Landis. Ms. Landis is a great romantic writer!!! I'm really tired of poor girls falling in love with spoiled dukes and princes. This is like real people! YEAH, Keep those books coming!!
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC
Review: I love books by Lavyra Spencer (sp) and have read them all. She stopped writing books and I was CRUSHED. UNTIL I found Jill Marie Landis. Ms. Landis is a great romantic writer!!! I'm really tired of poor girls falling in love with spoiled dukes and princes. This is like real people! YEAH, Keep those books coming!!
Rating:
Summary: Emotional Historical
Review: In the spring of 1866, with the aftermath of the Civil War, a destitute Sara Collier Talbot returns to Magnolia Creek, Kentucky. She seeks shelter at the home of her sister-in-law, Louzanna Talbot. Though Sara left Kentucky in disgrace over a year after discovering that her husband Dru had been killed in the war, Lou welcomed her back with open arms. But Dru has in fact survived the war, and struggles with his damaged male pride when he learns that Sara hasn't spent recent years pining away at the Talbot family home. For her journey west to Ohio resulted in a surprise that Dru never expected when he dreamed of his homecoming. As Dru and Sara try to maintain a platonic truce, she hopes for his forgiveness even as he struggles with his attraction to her. And when a devastating tragedy involves the whole town, Dru, the physician, and Sara, the healer, must employ all their skills to save as many lives as possible. Ms. Landis is a standout in the sub-genre of historical romance, not merely for her page-turning stories, but also because her novels are filled with the emotional angst appreciated by many romance readers. Once again, this latest novel is filled with emotional conflict and an intense story line. While the drama is not quite as compelling as previous reads, fans of Ms. Landis should not be disappointed.
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