SWEET HUSH by Deborah Smith
Deborah Smith is a writer who is almost too good for her own good. In her new novel SWEET HUSH she creates two characters who are as interesting as any two people have ever been. The problem is she creates them a "back story" so involving that when she settles her story in the present time you want to go back to the "beginnings." Now that is a mark of good writing!
Hush McGillen is the heroine of the story. She has been born and raised in north Georgia where the best eating apples in the world grow. Hush owns a spread of land where the "Sweet Hush" apples flourish and she is determined to make her fame and fortune from them. In this way she can secure a bright future for her family.
Smith tells Hush's story from the beginning, up to and including her romance with Davy Thackery and the later birth of their son Davis. The story then flashes forward twenty-three years and we learn that Davis has brought home Eddie, the daughter of the President of the United States, to stay at Hush's house. They have left Harvard, which both were attending, and fled to the safety of the Georgia mountains. There they want to escape the glaring eye of the celebrity spotlight Eddie attracts.
Eddie's escape to Georgia prompts her uncle, Nick Jacobek, to follow her. He arrives and there is an instant attraction between him and Hush. At this point we also get the story of Nick's growing up and again it is even better than the present state of affairs. You want to know more about his early life and you crave some chapters on his wartime adventures. But they aren't forthcoming. There is just too much present day plot to attend to.
The story Smith tells is wonderful and you won't be able to put the book down until you have it all read. This is her best story since ON BEAR MOUNTAIN and is sure to satisfy her hordes of fans and also draw new devotee's to her writing shrine.
When it comes to creating indelible characters, Smith is the pre-imminent Southern writer. She makes them loving, strong, funny, romantic, heroic or all of the above. There is humor in her situations but it flows freely from the moment and is never forced. You will find yourself laughing along with the predicaments you find these characters in, but in an instant you will be welling up with tears as one tender moment after another slowly occurs.
This is a perfect novel for people who read just for the dad-gum pleasure of it. You will have a wonderful time from first to last page. It is a story which is satisfying and complete. The only flaw is that you wish you could have had more of SWEET HUSH - THE EARLY YEARS.
SWEET HUSH is published by Little Brown. It contains 324 pages and sells for $23.95.