*Betty Sweet Tells All* is the sequel to *Maggie Sweet* by Judith Minthorn Stacy, and I loved them both. Betty, Maggie's mother, picks up where Maggie left off in the first novel. When Maggie leaves her husband of nineteen years for no apparent reason, Betty tries to take on the responsibility of fixing everyone's problems. The novel is humorous, sweet, and sentimental all at once. If you liked the first novel, definitely pick up a copy of this one.

The novel, set in 1985, follows the lives of a small-town family and their day-to-day crises. Maggie's working on finding normality after leaving her husband, Steven, a my-way-or-the-highway guy and reuniting with Jerry, her high school boyfriend. Nobody can understand why Maggie's up and done something so foolish, but Betty tries to understand and forgive Maggie. When Betty realizes that she's been trying to fix everything in their lives, she decides to take time out for herself and maybe fall in love.

The novel was a lot of fun and well-written. Each character seems to have a story of their own, and I hope Stacy will continue the series by focusing on Mama Dean and Maggie's twin daughters, Jill and Amy. Enjoy!

I went into this book "blind" (I had never heard anything about it and had only glanced at the synopsis on the back cover). I must say that I was entertained and, although the book often headed down a cliche road, it always seemed to redeem itself. There are some stock characters, but Maggie Sweet is a one of a kind woman.

I have been checking out the recommend feature on Amazon.com & bookbrowser.com. They are fairly accurate on mystery for me as many they recommend I have already read. After reading " Miss Julia Takes Over" I was looking for similar southern style stories and hit on this one. Maggie is a 38 yr old woman who
married right after high school and now her twins are about to graduate and leave the nest. She feels restless in her marriage and her life is stuck at boredom. The last straw is when her straight laced husband buys cemetery plots with money that was save to take a cruise after the children leave for college. To
complicate matters, her high 20th yr high school graduation is around the corner and she feels her life is a failure. She didn't set the world on fire or even follow her dreams of being a hair stylist. As she reminisces about her life her high school love returns to town. This is the start of a torrid romance that soon the whole town knows about but not her husband. At this point the author does some twisting to give Maggie her out of her bland life, an opportunity to own a beauty shop and to gain a lost love again. In all still a good read when you don't want to tax your brain.

*Maggie Sweet* (also known as *Styles by Maggie Sweet in the paperback version) is the best book I've read all summer. It'll tickle your funny bone and shock the pants right off you in just about every sentence. I plan to recommend this to my family, friends and book buddies!

Maggie is a North Carolina stay-at-home mom (read: maid) to twin teen daughters and wife (read: servant) to high school teacher, Steven. Although for most of her adult life she accepted her life with few arguments, she's begun to wonder if this is all she'll ever have. And when her twenty year high school reunion comes up with the return of her high school sweetheart, Maggie re-thinks her unfulfilling marriage to stolid Steven.

A hilarious cast of characters surround Maggie and her family including a wacky best friend and country singing star-to-be, Mary Price, and a grandmother with more pizazz than Joan Rivers, Mama Dean. You'll have a ball; this book guarantees it!