Sweet Hush: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: deep light on rural Georgia
Review: Fifth generation apple grower, Hush McGillen is proud of her Georgia mountain roots and being 100% American, but she never expected to be spending any time at the White House. She had not even contemplated visiting as a tourist. However, not only is she in DC and inside the Pennsylvania Avenue barriers, Hush is at war with the First Lady on the enemy's turf.

The war of the women began when Hush's son Davis brings to the orchard his pregnant Harvard girlfriend, "Eddie" Jacobs. Now Eddie is no ordinary student as she is the First Daughter and she and Davis have slipped away from the Secret Service. Surprisingly, Hush turning deep purple when she begins to find the First Nephew quite attractive, but there still remains a war of the ladies to resolve as the vultures from the media begin turning over the red clay.

The romance seems unlikely, but once the reader accepts that Eddie and Davis are an entry, the audience will appreciate the richness of the story line. The key to the tale is when Hush provides her first person observations of the past, present, and the future. When the nephew takes center stage, he behaves more like Edward G. Robinson in a flick than a relative of the first family. Still, fans of Deborah Smith will delight in her latest contemporary tale that sheds a deep light on rural Georgia.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: deep light on rural Georgia
Review: Fifth generation apple grower, Hush McGillen is proud of her Georgia mountain roots and being 100% American, but she never expected to be spending any time at the White House. She had not even contemplated visiting as a tourist. However, not only is she in DC and inside the Pennsylvania Avenue barriers, Hush is at war with the First Lady on the enemy's turf.

The war of the women began when Hush's son Davis brings to the orchard his pregnant Harvard girlfriend, "Eddie" Jacobs. Now Eddie is no ordinary student as she is the First Daughter and she and Davis have slipped away from the Secret Service. Surprisingly, Hush turning deep purple when she begins to find the First Nephew quite attractive, but there still remains a war of the ladies to resolve as the vultures from the media begin turning over the red clay.

The romance seems unlikely, but once the reader accepts that Eddie and Davis are an entry, the audience will appreciate the richness of the story line. The key to the tale is when Hush provides her first person observations of the past, present, and the future. When the nephew takes center stage, he behaves more like Edward G. Robinson in a flick than a relative of the first family. Still, fans of Deborah Smith will delight in her latest contemporary tale that sheds a deep light on rural Georgia.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Sweet Hush is About a Lot More Than an Apple Orchard
Review: Hush McGillen Thackery knew at a very early age that she was going to be someone. Suffering through her family's poverty and losing both her parents by age sixteen, Hush decided she would turn the family apple orchards into a profitable business again.

Though she was made fun of for selling apples from a road side stand, it only inspired her. Hush kept going. Surviving.

She was given control of Sweet Hush Hollow and custody of her five-year-old brother, Logan. Her childhood friends, Davy and Smooch, vowed to help her.

When Hush becomes pregnant with Davy's child, she reluctantly agrees to marry him, knowing he will not be faithful. Hush is still determined to make the orchards a success.

She handles the obstacles one by one, choosing to keep her family life discreet. The years fly by and Hush has turned Sweet Hush Hollow into the profitable family business she knew it could be.

Life is good, comfortable...until one day her now 23-year-old son calls her to let her know he is on his way home from college. He arrives with the President of the United State's daughter in tow. They are married and pregnant.

Hush is thrown into the public eye. Her life of secrets is threatened as she discovers a real bee charmer and ultimately her true self.

Deborah Smith did an excellent job bringing these two families through a crisis and to an understanding of each other. There were little stories within the overall story which kept the pages turning through the night.

Rating:
Summary: ~ A Real Treat To Read ~
Review: I have heard only but the good reviews on this book, now I know why. I enjoyed Sweet Hush at first I thought it was all about apple growing but it's so much more than that it's about family values, I loved all the characters in this book, This will be a keeper for me, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This is my first Deborah Smith, I can't wait to read her other books.
Happy Reading Lisa

Rating:
Summary: A sensational novel
Review: Life for Hush McGillen-Thackery got off to a rough start with the loss of both her father and her family's clout in a small rural area in Northern Georgia. However, despite her obstacles as an adolescent, she became one of those people who confronted adversity with an air of challenge. And she turned out to be a strong character in Deborah Smith's SWEET HUSH.

Hush stuck me as one of those people who knows what they are destined for, as she rebuildt her family's empire as one of the heavyweight apple farmers in the state. The Sweet Hush apple, named after Hush's foremothers, was a sweet and rare fruit, and remained a central theme in her life.

When Hush's son brought home the daughter of encumbent U.S. President Al Jacobs, Hush's quaint, quiet life in the Hollow of Sweet Hush Farms withstood some noteable changes. Hush had to look, once again, to the apple trees to guide her and console her through decisions she never thought she'd have to make.

As this was my first time reading a work by Smith, I embarked on this reading journey with an open mind. I was looking for a good story with love, action, and lessons. I found these things in SWEET HUSH, a sensational novel.

Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rating:
Summary: Winner of the WordWeaving Award for Excellence
Review: The fifth of her line, Hush McGillen Thackery believes people are born to be whoever they want to be. It is all in how they tell their story. Hush spins a tale of true love, of the perfect Harvard son and of a successful apple farm. But love was rotten to the core with a man who did not live up to revered image, but whose presence made it acceptable for a business woman to succeed. Now secrets from the past threaten to bring down Hush's idealist image and destroy all she holds dear when her son Davis brings the world's scrutiny because he brings home his secret bride--the president's daughter.

The president and his wife are convinced that Hush has ulterior motives and that the marriage between their daughter Hush's son was somehow coerced. They vastly underestimate this Appalachian queen who rules her home, farm and county. When they send the president's cousin Nicholas Jacobek to bring the situation under control, Hush meets the only man in her life who can match her skill at charming bees. But Jacob's dark past conceals a man of kindness and of mercilessness who will do anything to protect family, even kill.

Author Deborah Smith succinctly captures the flavor of the south and of powerful matriarchs in SWEET HUSH. Readers will find it impossible to forget these rich characterizations and mesmerizing prose. Hush is blunt, fierce and determined, deserving of a hard man like Jacob. The president's wife Edwina would be easy to hate except Smith carefully reveals her vulnerabilities, devotion and motivation in a way that not only makes her understandable, but likeable despite her bitchy ways. Readers will delight in the image of Hush and Edwina throwing rotten apples at each other in the White House. Easily followed shifting points of view provide interior views of complex motives and tantalizing possibilities. In all, three love stories wind their way around the reader's heart, resulting in a must read tale reader's won't want to miss. SWEET HUSH earns the WordWeaving Award for Excellence.

Rating:
Summary: Delicious with no calories!
Review: What a great read. Starts off a tiny bit slow, but sucks you in to an incredible plot with interesting characters. Our heroine is admirable; protects her family with all she has, reaches out to her extended family and community and is a role model of hard work and success.
No erotic scenes, but aren't you a bit tired of them anyway!?
Just a lovely romance of a young(er) widow and the man who has not known much love. Deborah Smith is a deep author with much to share. I've read some of her others and always found them fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: You laugh, you cry...
Review: When I read the jacket for this book I thought, Oh no, how hokey. Here's another book about the President's family, and the books I've read lately with this type of story line have not rung true.

Admittedly the presidental angle of this story is just a little hokey but Deborah Smith makes it work. The author pulls in the reader with great groundwork, inserts a strong heroine in a believable background, and then weaves a compelling story I couldn't get enough with an overall effect of a finely written concerto.

Is it just another southern tale? Yes and no. Yes it's set in the south with many colorful southern folks but the author weaves these characters into a fine tapestry where they add a richness but never overtake the story.

In addition, she adds a great hero who I came to empathize with until eventually I wanted and needed him to find his heart's desire. And he does, very satisfactorily.

Put all the components together and voila--magic. The story made me laugh and cry and root for the characters; I couldn't put the book down. This is a gem in a long run of literary disappointments. Don't pass it up.