Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsgreat read
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 3, 2020
Midnight Promise: A Sweet Magnolias novel Book 8 is by Sherryl Woods. This just continues the story of the people of Serenity, South Carolina. This book is just packed with fun and games, fights and promises, weddings and divorces. It really keeps you on your toes. Sherryl puts the reader right in the middle of all the things going on in town and makes it very realistic.
Karen and Elliott finally get married to her children’s delight. Daisy and Mark really like having Elliott as their stepdad. It makes things easier and makes Mom smile more. Karen had finally agreed to an annulment of her first marriage so she could marry Elliott in the Catholic church which pleased his Mother. However, Karen still felt out of place when the Cruz family got together. His sisters were still a little cold to her, although they totally accepted Daisy and Mark. Luckily for Karen, she now had the Sweet Magnolias on her side as well as Frances, her elderly neighbor who was more of a grandmother to her kids than her own mother was. Although she was madly in love with Elliott, he was beginning to keep things from her which she disliked. With their work schedules, they didn’t get a lot of time together which made it hard to talk about serious things. With the help of Elliott’s Mother and Frances, they began having date nights so they could talk.
Elliott and the husbands of the other Sweet Magnolias and their wives had been talking about opening a men’s gym in Serenity. The only gym they had was Dexter’s which was run down and dirty. They hoped to all go in and open a men’s gym. Elliott’s part would be sweat equity as he and Maddie would be in charge of the gym and as he got the hang of it, he would run the men’s gym and Maddie would continue to run the Corner Spa. However, Elliott felt he had to put in money too and their savings wasn’t much which left a second mortgage on the house. Instead of talking this over with Karen as soon as they began talking about it, he waited until it was almost settled then, Erik spilled the beans while they were working at Sullivan’s. She felt betrayed and felt he was acting like her ex-husband and going to get them in debt and then leave her with the bill. He wasn’t taking her fear of debt into consideration and as her name was on the deed, there was no way she was risking their home. Things are destined to get more twisted and involved before they could even think of getting better.
That doesn’t include what Elliott’s sister and niece were up to or Frances's new problems, all of which involved Karen and Elliott. Would their new marriage have a chance of surviving when all they did was work to make ends meet?