Sweet Hush

This book is so typical of Southern Families with a strong matriarchal leader. I laughed out loud while reading because Ms Smith uses comical pharses I have grown up hearing. This is an awesome book.

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.

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

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.

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.