Welcome to Serenity (Sweet Magnolias) Mass Market Paperback – January 19, 2010

Welcome to Serenity: Sweet Magnolias, Book 4 is by Sherryl Woods. This book is about the lovely town of Serenity, South Carolina. The magnolias are a group of women who are best friends and cover any event in their friends’ lives.Jeanette works for The Corner Spa which is owned by Maddie, Dana Sue, and Helen. She set up and works the facial section of the salon and is very well liked by her clients. She has not dated for several years since she broke up with her boyfriend. He wanted to control her life and work but she was determined to go her own way. Now, Maddie wants her to work on the Christmas Festival committee for the town. Jeanette has valid reasons for not liking Christmas but has never told anyone here is Serenity why. Now she is working for the Christmas festival just to stop the pushing from her colleagues.Tom McDonald has come to Serenity to be the town manager. The first thing he is hit with in September is the Christmas festival. After having Christmas forced on him as a child, he disliked the season and feels he has other things that need his attention. The mayor feels differently and forces him to be in charge of the festival.Tom and Jeanette join forces to stop the Magnolias from matchmaking, only to make things worse. Can things get even worse? Tom’s Mother comes to town. Watch the fur fly.This is a cute book and it is fun to read how they get out of the mess they help make.

I read the first three books and liked them a lot more than this one. Part of the problem here was there were just too many things going on with too many couples for me to get interested in the main couple. Jeanette isn't one of the original Sweet Magnolias but was adopted into their group when she moved into Serenity and took a management position at the Corner Spa. (I found it hard to believe that the spa did so much business in such a small town, but...) She loves her job, but isn't happy when she finds that her boss wants her to help out with the town's Christmas festival. She has avoided all Christmas activities for years because of an incident in her past. Also recruited to work on the festival is Tom McDonald, the town's new manager who also dislikes Christmas. It was hard for me to take Tom and Jeanette seriously because I felt like their actions were so immature. The characters weren't really well developed in my opinion and the dialogue was mostly on the juvenile side. I did a lot of skimming to finish.

The main character in this book is miserable. I kept expecting her character to develope out of her shrewish miserable state. But at the halfway point I have abandoned it and the entire sweet magnolias series. Am sorry I paid for this book. Total waste of money and time spent waiting for the book to move on.

I can’t get over the audible version. The narrator was the worst. She speaks soooooo slow and fumbles over the words that I stopped listening and bought the kindle version instead. I’d rather take longer to read it myself. The only reason I give this 3 stars, is because the story is alright. It’s a struggle to get through this book. These characters aren’t as notable and somewhat annoying. I can’t wait to finish it and get started on the next book in the series.

After watching the Sweet Magnolias on TV- I went to my bookshelves and fouond that I had read some of the books by Sherryl Woods. i ordered the ones I ws missing and now have completed all 11 Sweet Magnolias . I interaction of the women in these books show how strong women are in over-coming loss and pain with the help of their frinds The friends start of elementary shool friends and follows through with the way they accept new friends to their group. These women come together to support each other. Terrific mesages throughout.

Sherryl Woodsdoes a better job with this Sweet Magnolias volume than she did with the last. This book extends beyond the original three Sweet Magnolias: Helen, Maddie and Dana Sue, to focus on their employee at the Corner Spa, Jeanette. During her three years in Serenity, Jeanette has secured her place within the Sweet Magnolias' group while remaining les than forthcoming about her pass and staying far away from any romantic involvement. When the new Town Manager, Tom McDonald arrives in town, sparks instantly occur between the two. Moreover, Tom and Jeanette find themselves the only two Ebenezer Scrooges amidst the Christmas manic town of Serenity. Woods takes chapter after chapter to move the couple two steps forward and three steps backward over and over again as the two are pulled together by chemistry and pulled apart by shadows from their pasts. Both sets of parents become involved as Woods pulls back layers and layers of generational pain and angst that serves to separate the couple. Then, boom!...the end! That's my main criticism of this volume: the end comes abruptly without the "happily ever after" of the previous three volumes. Thank goodness the only side story Woods includes in this volume concerns Marry Vaughn and her ex-husband Sonny. Here too, their story is brought along slowly, providing significant aspects for exploration, but then is rushed for a conclusion. However, the characters, and the town of Serenity, make for good reading and I am off to read Volume 5. Aren't you?

I love this series. Especially love the varied romance scenarios. This book actually features two couples who wander through the tangled maze of building and rebuilding relationships. Whoever said that love is not for the faint hearted got it right!

It was fun to follow and the stories of the people of Serenity.Love the way the couples developed.Now we are left hanging with Tom & Madeleine Hopefully the next book of the sweet magnolias.

Excellent storyljne. Part 4 in the series, enjoyed all so far but unfortunately the back cover was torn which is disappointing

Very slow, boring book. Nothing exciting, I kept waiting for something exciting to happen, it never did. I t was very disappointing.

I have enjoyed this series

I really love the Sweet Magnolias the way the stories run into each other with a continuity whilst being a complete novel for those who have not read any of the series. The characters are very realistic the plot is great and I can't wait to get the next instalment.

Love the sweet Mongolia characters so had to read this one! Enjoyed every moment and particular new characters being introduced