A Slice of Heaven (Sweet Magnolias Series #2) »

With her roots firmly planted in the South, Sherryl Woods has written many of her more than 100 books in that distinctive setting, whether her home state of Virginia, her adopted state, Florida, or her much-adored South Carolina. She's also especially partial to small towns, wherever they may be. A member of Novelists Inc., Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America, Sherryl divides her time between her childhood summer home overlooking the Potomac River in Colonial Beach, Virginia, and her oceanfront home, with its lighthouse view, in Key Biscayne, Florida.

Dana Sue might run the best little restaurant in Serenity, but when you're feeding a small town of neighbors, busybodies and best friends, things can get a bit hot in the kitchen. Never mind that she's putting on too many pounds (an occupational hazard for a chef) — she's worried about her too-skinny teenage daughter, Annie, who has been slowly starving herself since the loud, suitcase-tossing, name-calling fit on her front lawn that left Dana Sue minus one cheating husband.

But sometimes life picks strange ways to mend fences. When Annie lands in the hospital, Dana Sue reaches out to the man she loves to hate: Ron, the husband who took her heart when she tossed him out. Ron is still Annie's white knight, even if he's decidedly more tarnished in Dana Sue's eyes. But he still looks good enough to eat, and maybe, just maybe, to forgive. Once, Ron made the mistake of letting go without a proper fight. But now Dana Sue is about to get another taste of sweet devotion from a man tired of feeling like a fool, hungry for that slice of heaven he found with her...

Publishers Weekly

Woods's latest entry in her Sweet Magnolias series (after Stealing Home) is sure to please fans and entice new readers with an affinity for family stories. Dana Sue Sullivan, devastated by husband Ronnie's one-night stand with a local bimbo, made neighborhood history by throwing him out of their Serenity, S.C., home, tossing his belongings onto the front lawn and banning him from all contact with her and their 14-year-old daughter, Annie. Two years later, Dana Sue is a successful restaurateur, having opened high-end eatery Sullivan's, but can't forgive herself after Annie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening anorexia complications. Dana Sue's lifelong best friends, Maddie and Helen, insist that she contact Ronnie, giving her forlorn ex an excuse to re-enter Serenity and, he hopes, a chance to rejoin his family. As everyone faces down their personal demons, Woods buoys the predictable plot with flesh-and-blood characters, terrific dialogue and substantial stakes. (Mar.)