Home Again

From my book review blog Rundpinne......A Hollywood actress hounded by paparazzi due to her soon to be ex-husband’s scandalous affairs flees to her hometown to protect herself and her child is not exactly a new setting for a novel, yet Mariah Stewart pulls it off magnificently in Home Again, the second book in her series, The Chesapeake Diaries. Home Again is a stand-alone novel and the reader is drawn to the small town of St. Dennis where Dallas MacGregor brings her 6-year-old son while her divorce is finalized and the scandal blows over in Hollywood. Naturally, it would not be a romance novel if Dallas did not meet up with an old flame and there is an element of fear and tension in the novel, but to say more would give the ending away. Stewart sets the scene beautifully and creates a Hollywood actress who is relatable, her precocious and adorable son Cody, kindhearted Grant, and her brilliant Aunt Beryl, who happens to be my absolute favorite character in the book. Home Again accurately describes the book, for the reader learns a lot about St. Dennis, crabbing, the locals, and is an all around delightful and at times suspenseful novel. I enjoyed reading Home Again and look forward to the third book in The Chesapeake Diaries, Almost Home Again. I would recommend Home Again to anyone looking for a slower paced, enjoyable and descriptive book.

I live in Maryland so enjoyed the setting. The author did a great job expressing the inner thoughts of the characters. I listened to this on CD while driving.

Chesapeake Diary Series #2 --More from the quaint town of St Dennis - this series involves Dallas MacGregor, a thirty-something, award-winning actress beloved by the public and bound for even bigger success and wants to write her own screenplay. But when her soon-to-be-ex-husband, producer Emilio Baird, is caught in a sex scandal, Dallas’s charmed life turns tabloid nightmare. Determined to shield her young son, Cody, from the ugly uproar, Dallas seeks refuge in sleepy St. Dennis, Maryland—the Chesapeake Bay town where her happiest childhood days.

After arriving Dallas soon finds a haven in the small town living with famous Hollywood aunt with her son Cody who loves the town and develops friends at the library and a new dog. Of course, Dallas cannot wait to see the local veterinarian Grant Wyler, her old high school summer love--she finds the spark is still there and he is newly divorced. Lots of drama in the town, new romances, old romances from the past rekindled and of course the famous Miss Grace and her diary.

Home Again
Mariah Stewart
★☆ 1/2

Ugh. I was sooo disappointed in this book. I had enjoyed book 1 so much. But with any series theres always one book that just doesnt measure up. I hope the series goes uphill from here.

The book was good the story line fine I love Berry. Just the sweetest thing, reminds me of my auntie. But gosh the details were never ending.

I dont like how the author concentrated more on the details than on our hero and heroine. They didnt really have a story there. If anything this book could have been made shorter into a novella explaining the town and people which is what this book did.
all the romance was at the end of the book, but even then I wad unsatisfied.

In this second book of the Chesapeake Diaries we can find some other characters from the first book (but they do not have a great role) and the continuity of the life on St. Dennis in Chesapeake Bay.
We get to know Dallas MacGregor and her son Cody and her motives to come back to the place where she was happy and carefree. Leaving behind a failed marriage, Dallas comes home to Berry, her great-aunt (that is also an old actress), to rest and to give some peace to her son.
Soon, Dallas finds that some secrets and some old desires are still there, deep inside her heart, especially when she encounters Grant Wyler, her first love...
Coming to St. Dennis will change her life and her dreams.

So ok, I'm really a sucker for happy endings and light romances like this one. I think that what draws me to this kind of stories is the feeling of family, of simplicity, of true love that one can only find in the small towns. It's books like this that can take your mind away from your troubles and transport you to a happy place where you definitely feel at home.

Dallas MacGregor, a Hollywood actress, returns with her young son to the small town where she spent summers as a child to get away from the tabloid stories about her cheating Hollywood husband.. There she builds a new life that includes her Aunt Berry who was also a famous actress. She also renews her relationship with her childhood sweetheart Grant. The story is sweet and emotional but has gotten away from the suspense aspect found in many of Mariah Stewart's books. Still, if you like stories about small town life you will enjoy this book.

I absolutely LOVE Mariah Stewart! She has been a favorite author of mine for some time, when I read some of her previous works, including book 1 in The Chesapeake Diaries Series, Coming Home. Her work is emotional yet humorous at times, complex yet enlightening and her characters become your family. Her writing style is tender and filled with her passion to create novels that her readers will love.

In Home Again, the reader is taken back to the Chesapeake area of Maryland (which I love because I was born in Maryland!). The reader gets a first hand look at Dallas' life. Sweet, sweet Dallas, bless her heart. She went through so much turmoil, both as a young girl, and later, as an adult actress in Hollywood. When things turn sour with her producer hubby, she seeks solace once again in the heart of the Bay in Maryland, with her great aunt. But, once there, she is reunited with her once best friend and sweetheart, Grant.

I loved reading Dallas and Grant's stories. They are both written with so much personality and love and they flow perfectly with the plot line. I really loved them both! And, not to mention, Dallas' sweet son, Cody. Bless his heart, I really felt a motherly pull to him, too!

I highly recommend this book to everyone. If you are looking for a good summer read this summer, then grab a copy of Mariah Stewart's 5 star book! It is part of a series, but it keeps the reader up to date so it's not overly confusing and could be read as a stand alone. I don't recommend it though, because books in a series are always best read in order, so the reader can savor each moment! I also had the pleasure to read book 3, Almost Home.....look for my review tomorrow!

This move by romantic suspense authors into boring small town women's fiction almost completely devoid of romance is not a trend I appreciate.

Mariah Stewart’s first book in this series was a very good mix of small town contemporary and suspense, but it seems with her second (and, presumably, third) book she’s moved away from suspense entirely. That leaves not very much at all. There’s a lot of time discussing flavours in the ice cream shop; lots of great aunt to niece discussions about ‘the good old days’; lots of child rearing; too much time talking about dogs.

Apart from a brief childhood conversation in the prologue, the hero and heroine aren’t even in the same scene until about a hundred and twenty pages in. This is book isn’t a romance.
The problem is, I have absolutely no idea what this book is.

Dallas spent childhood summers in St. Dennis, where Grant grew up. They had a teenage romance that Grant thought would last forever. Dallas upped and dumped him one day, went to Hollywood, became a movie star, and never looked back.
That’s about where the heroine lost me. I expected there was more to her story than that, but there wasn’t. She just didn’t care enough.
When Dallas’ failed marriage starts making news headlines she rushes ‘home’ with her son. Then they all sit around living a perfect existence in the perfect town. Grant is a veterinarian now, and they bond over dog rescuing. Everyone spends hundreds of pages walking by the water, and that’s about it.

There’s a side story involving Dallas writing a screenplay the studio wants her and her great aunt (who is, naturally, also a movie star) for. The reason I mention this is that Dallas’ character in the movie is supposed to be a middle aged woman. Dallas is thirty-eight. I wasn’t aware women in their thirties with sons in kindergarten were already at a point where they had to think about menopause and retirement.

Maybe in sixty years I’ll be old enough and set enough in my routine that this story might appeal more (but I certainly hope not!). However – coming from a writer who used to be able to create exciting stories – this one bored me beyond belief. I was skim reading half the time simply because I couldn’t stand any more descriptions of the flowers, the crabs, the local cuisine, the ice cream store. The main character of the story seemed to be the sickeningly-perfect small town, and that just wasn’t a decent source of entertainment to make this a good book.