Sweetwater Creek

Although it took me till about page 193 to really "fall" in love with this book. I did, and then I didn't want it to end....there was sooo much more I wanted to know. It was my first Anne Rivers Siddons book I have read, I have already read another of her books :) Good book, give it time to develop, it seems to really grab you then.

Since my parents were born in Kentucky and I was born in Ohio, I love anything Southern. Pat Conroy, the best of the best the South has to offer, is my favorite author. I've just discovered Siddon and she soon may become my favorite new author, if her other books are anything like this one. I felt like I knew her characters and just looooooved visiting Sweetwater. I didn't want to leave that rather idyllic place and that sweet child, Emily. I recommend this book highly.

Anne Rivers Siddons is a great story teller, and Sweetwater Creek is another of her compelling stories. This book takes the reader to the hot, humid south, and an old, southern home where the best of hunting dogs are bred. The story is of a girl growing up in this mother home, and there are many facets to the story, and interesting characters. Looking fwd to ARS next book!

...I would want to live in SWEETWATER CREEK, the latest novel by Anne Rivers Siddons. A magical place where dolphins venture onto land to feed and spaniels speak, a locale that is almost mystical in its unspeakable beauty: the land of the Lowcountry in South Carolina, the place 12-year-old Emily Parmenter calls home. During the summer of her twelfth year, loneliness falls over Emily like a heavy sheet, dark and constricting. Her mother left when she was very young, and her brother Buddy, with whom she read poetry and shared secrets for hours, has been dead for years. Her father and twin brothers, with whom she lives at Sweetwater Plantation, focus all their time on training the plantation's famous and widely known Boykin spaniels. This summer, Emily and her only companion, her own Boykin Elvis, are on their own. That is, until a wealthy couple from Charleston bring their daughter to Sweetwater to look at the Boykins. LuLu Foxworth is 20 years old, ethereally beautiful and utterly wasted-looking all at once. LuLu is over-tired, her parents say, and is recovering from the flu. When they see how LuLu responds to the dogs, they ask Emily's father Walter if she could possibly come stay with them at Sweetwater for a few months, just until school starts in the fall. Walter Parmenter, who desires nothing more than to be a part of Carolina high society, sees LuLu as his ticket to an unattainable world and ardently agrees to let her stay. At first Emily resists LuLu's presence and attempts at friendship, but it isn't long before the two girls become friends, despite their age difference. And it isn't long before Emily learns that LuLu's perfect life isn't nearly what it seems, and that the young woman is hiding some terrible secrets of her own. What started out like any other summer becomes the summer that Emily grows up, begins to "know things," and recognizes that fact that she must leave her magical world of dolphins and pluff mud and face the real world. SWEETWATER CREEK is, in one word, astonishing. In Anne Rivers Siddons' expert hands, the magical Carolina Lowcountry comes alive. The novel is thick with atmosphere, and the prose is absolutely breathtaking, lyrical and haunting, and it almost reads like poetry. Her descriptions are vivid and lively, perceptive and evocative. The novel, with all its talk of debutantes and old family plantations, feels timeless. Siddons' characters are intricate and lovingly written. The relationship between Elvis and Emily is engaging; Emily's relationship with LuLu is complicated and well-explored. Walter is a particularly interesting creation, a man who cares more about his daughter's debut in society than he does about Emily herself. And LuLu--Well, LuLu is a charming, heartbreaking character, a girl who, although she is young, has dark desires to which she can't help but succumb. All of the characters are so real, balancing nicely with the magical unreality of the setting. SWEETWATER CREEK

I read "Sweetwater Creek" in one day. I couldn't put it down. Not because it was riveting in a "must know" sort of way, rather I didn't want to leave Sweetwater , South Carolina, or little Emily. They became my home. Emily had been left too many times for such a young girl, I needed to stay and make sure she would be okay. Ann Rivers Siddon's writing was so descriptive, so engaging, I became lost in this beautiful place. I angered at Walter who had everything of value before him and wanted only what was beyond his grasp. I loved Emily for desiring and appreciating all that was in front of her and for having the sense to know what was really important. Emily saw all the beauty in her world while her father was constantly in search of something outside of his. That young child had a maturity beyond her years and I had to remind myself she was just a child. In the end, this was a "coming of age" story. A story of love and all too often, loss. There is beauty between these pages and I think it's destined to be a true classic. Highly recommended!