Join Books.org — it's free

Book cover of Sweet Hush
Settings & Atmosphere - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Sweet Hush

by Deborah Smith
Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Log in to track your reading progress.

Overview

Her Harvard-student son just eloped with the First Daughter. CNN is parked on the road to her apple orchards. Secret Service agents have commandeered her country kitchen. The irate First Parents are threatening to have her taxes audited. The President's handsome, tough, ex-military nephew is setting up camp in her guest room.

Hush McGillan's quiet Appalachian world of heirloom apples, country festivals, and carefully guarded family secrets has just been flipped like one of her famous Sweet Hush Apple Turnovers. What do you do when your brand-new in-laws are the First Family, and they don't like you any more than you like them? And what happens next when you find yourself falling in love with the man they sent to unearth all your secrets?

From the White House to the apple house, from humor to tears and sorrow to laughter, get ready to fall in love with Sweet Hush. Optioned for Disney Films by the producer of The Princess Diaries.

Deborah Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of A Place To Call Home, The Crossroads Cafe, A Gentle Rain and many others. Visit her at www.bellebooks.com and www.deborah-smith.com

Synopsis

Smith cooks up a passionate story about a woman whose life is thrown into chaos when her son elopes with the daughter of the President of the United States. Includes an brand-new short story.

Publishers Weekly

An apple orchard provides the atmospheric background for Smith's (A Place to Call Home) ninth novel, but a farfetched romance reduces it to hijinks. Hush McGillen introduces her family's apple farming history in the mountains of Georgia, where they raise a renowned hybrid apple, the Sweet Hush. Hush has been involved with the orchard since her father died when she was 12. She assumed responsibilities for the business as well as for her little brother, Logan, after her mother died when Hush was 16, the same year she fell pregnant and married race car driver and womanizer Davy Thackery. Davy isn't responsible, but he is a loving father to his son Davis, and proud of Hush as she builds her orchard into a multimillion dollar industry. After Davy's death in a car accident, the story jumps 23 years forward to when Davis brings home Edwina "Eddie" Jacobs, a fellow Harvard student and the daughter of the president of the United States. History has repeated itself; Eddie is pregnant, and the couple has fled to the orchard to elude Eddie's surveillance team of Secret Service agents. Hush battles with the irate First Lady over how to handle the situation. She also meets the president's nephew, Nick Jabokek, a weapons specialist, who alternates narration with Hush and falls for the apple magnate. In contrast to Hush's salty, humorous language ("I would rather eat dirt and shit roots first"), Nick's voice is that of a clich d tough guy: "I slept with the kind of women who moved fast and left damage behind." Together, they try to prevent the unwelcome barrage of negative publicity from revealing buried family secrets. Although the plot is implausible, Hush McGillen's voice is rich enough to keep the reader hooked. (Feb. 18) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Publishers Weekly

An apple orchard provides the atmospheric background for Smith's (A Place to Call Home) ninth novel, but a farfetched romance reduces it to hijinks. Hush McGillen introduces her family's apple farming history in the mountains of Georgia, where they raise a renowned hybrid apple, the Sweet Hush. Hush has been involved with the orchard since her father died when she was 12. She assumed responsibilities for the business as well as for her little brother, Logan, after her mother died when Hush was 16, the same year she fell pregnant and married race car driver and womanizer Davy Thackery. Davy isn't responsible, but he is a loving father to his son Davis, and proud of Hush as she builds her orchard into a multimillion dollar industry. After Davy's death in a car accident, the story jumps 23 years forward to when Davis brings home Edwina "Eddie" Jacobs, a fellow Harvard student and the daughter of the president of the United States. History has repeated itself; Eddie is pregnant, and the couple has fled to the orchard to elude Eddie's surveillance team of Secret Service agents. Hush battles with the irate First Lady over how to handle the situation. She also meets the president's nephew, Nick Jabokek, a weapons specialist, who alternates narration with Hush and falls for the apple magnate. In contrast to Hush's salty, humorous language ("I would rather eat dirt and shit roots first"), Nick's voice is that of a clich d tough guy: "I slept with the kind of women who moved fast and left damage behind." Together, they try to prevent the unwelcome barrage of negative publicity from revealing buried family secrets. Although the plot is implausible, Hush McGillen's voice is rich enough to keep the reader hooked. (Feb. 18) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

"Sweet Hush" is an heirloom apple variety grown in the Georgia mountains for five generations. Hush McGillen Thackery, named for the ancestor who also gave her name to the fruit, got pregnant and married at 16. Widowed when her womanizing husband died in a race car wreck, she has overseen the development of the McGillen Orchards from a family farm into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Now 41, Hush has high hopes for her son, Davis, who is a junior at Harvard, but she's shocked and disappointed when he comes home midterm with his pregnant girlfriend, Edwina "Eddie" Jacobs. Because Eddie's father happens to be the President of the United States, she brings with her the Secret Service, a great deal of media attention, and a protector-her cousin Nick, a former Army special op. Romance between Hush and Nick is inevitable, though the telling of it is (thankfully) less steamy than it might be. The dual, gender-specific narration by William Dufris and Laurel Lefkow requires Southern, Midwestern, and Polish accents. It takes a cassette length to get accustomed to the constant switching of voices, but by that time the listener is already caught up in the story. Though the plot and the ending are predictable, this program is a pleasant romance that's hard to put down (or switch off).-Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Book Details

Published
March 1, 2003
Publisher
Bell Bridge Books
Pages
300
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780980245301

More by Deborah Smith

Similar books