How Stella Got Her Groove Back

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60  ·  rating details  ·  4,686 ratings  ·  202 reviews
Stella Payne is forty-two, divorced, a high-powered investment analyst, mother of eleven-year-old Quincy--and she does it all. In fact, if she doesn't do it, it doesn't get done, from Little League carpool duty to analyzing portfolios to folding the laundry and bringing home the bacon. She does it all well, too, if her chic house, personal trainer, BMW, and her loving son...more
ebook, 464 pages
Published January 6th 2004 by Signet Book (first published January 1st 1996)
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Joel
Jan 25, 2011 Joel rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Joel by: Julie Nelson
Retroactive rating based on memories of more than a decade ago: I spent a week reading this when it came out in the summer of 1996 because my friend Julie told me to. This is notable because I was the only 15-year-old suburban white male in the world who spent a week in the summer of 1996 reading How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

I kept thinking that Terry McMillan's recent sequel to Waiting to Exhale was actually a sequel to this book, which sounded like a bad idea to me, since this one is pretty...more
Ivy

This is a bit of a hard book to rate, I want to give it 2.5 stars because I did enjoy it, but good reads hasn't yet been kind enough to add that feature. So "it was okay" will have to do.

If you want a read for an afternoon where you have nothing better to do? Not put off by romance? Then this will work handily.
It's a good tale in the emotional arena and it is reflective of female empowerment in some ways, and it steps on it in others. (the latter being namely the romance, and needing a new love...more
Cyndy Aleo
I ordered How Stella Got Her Groove Back from Amazon during one of their closeout sales. I love picking up hardcovers on the cheap, and had really enjoyed Waiting to Exhale and figured that I couldn't go wrong.

Yeah, right. I'm trying to determine if I am more disappointed because this is the first entire book I was able to read since my daughter was born, or because it seems like Terry McMillan tossed this one off merely to make money off the publicity for Waiting to Exhale.

::: Losing Her Groove...more
Mick
I'll be writing about the film for my dissertation, and so I knew I had to check out the book, too.

I've got to say that I really didn't like it. First, I found McMillan's style distracting. I believe she's going for a stream of consciousness style, but the lack of most punctuation combined with sentences that frequently take over half of a page makes for a really difficult, rather than comforting, read.

I also found the text problematic on grounds of gender. The movie portrayed Stella as strong,...more
Lynn Green
I got this book for my high school students through a Title I grant. The books we ordered with the funds are to be used for high-interest young adult reading. I ordered this book because our student body is majority African-American, and I knew that Terry McMillan wrote her books about black characters.

When the order arrived, How Stella Got Her Groove back came with a note asking me that I preview the book because of its sexual content. So I did, and I am still making this available for the stu...more
Carolina
I was at first intrigued with the writing style. I loved how the thought process skimmed through so many facets.

Then the story began. I think I had the biggest problem with the age thing. Having a son just turning 21 really caused me to gasp at the thought of this storyline. I just couldn't get past that point and then to read on and find that there was a serious intention of pursuing a relationship, it was just too much for me. I just could not give credibility to the story after the far out f...more
Emmarose
Stella may have got her groove back but this book stalled cold in a rut. Her groove was a shallow as herself as this character lacked depth, dimension, and was void of any interesting characteristics or behaviours. There was also many references to brand-name objects; so much so that at times I wondered if she had indeed been sponsored by Sony and various other major corporations.

The 'stream of consciousness' style of writing was okay but did tend to get a little annoying about half way through...more
Nardsbaby Reader
More Than A Love Story

Terry McMillan writes more than a love story here. We meet Stella a 42 year old high powered African American woman whose been divorced 3 years and has an adorable 11 year old son Quincy. All Stella's life is about is being a dedicated mother and career woman, that changes when she's fired. Quincy goes to visit dad and Stella and her "FRIEND" decide she needs sometime for herself to do something fun. The very rich details about her 9 day trip to Jamaica make you feel as if...more
liz
Another vacation read. And no, I didn't see the movie. My first, most pleasant surprise was that Terry McMillan actually has a "voice". Granted, it has a lot to do with run-on sentences, but I guess because the book/movie was so popular I didn't think the author would actually be able to write. But she can, well enough. Good for you, Terry McMillan. And l liked Stella, a lot. She's a sympathetic character, she knows herself, she's an individual, and she's built herself a great life. Although, sh...more
Janie
OK, another so-so read by McMillan, but I found it enjoyable. Because it features African-American characters it seemed to appeal to me more than if it had Caucasian characters. I know that sounds funny but it brings not only a story but thoughts and feelings that many black people can relate to, and I am not black so it gives me a different perspective. I'm not saying I am walking a mile in someone's shoes, just perhaps finding touchstones that show how alike we all are. Despite the color of th...more
Christina
Feb 09, 2010 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Older women
I've seen this movie plenty of times, but never read the book to understand the emotions Stella had towards Winston. In my opinion, and I could be wrong because I'm younger, but Stella had a huge wall up towards Winston, and the age difference between them. She could not get over the fact that she was so much older than him, and it created so much unwanted tension in their relationship.

I'm not a big fan of Terry McMillan, but her Stella character grated on my nerves, and I was happy to be finis...more
Rachel
It's fine for a quick mindless read, and darkly ironic because it's based on McMillan's then-marriage to a charming, younger man from Jamaica that...erm, didn't turn out so well. My main problem is with the story's predictability (which is fine, because it never attempts to be thought-provoking or deep) and the damned run-on sentences. Oh, but one thing I DID like: the inner-story reference as Stella reclines on a beach reading--what else--one of McMillan's novels. I don't have the exact quote,...more
Bridget
Book was better than I thought it would be, but the ending reads like she was over her deadline and needed to finish.
Steen
I wasn't to sure at the start if I was going to be able to read this book. The constant big blocks of text that were basically run on sentances were really annoying at first. I figure the author was going for the stream of consiousness but ugh. Nothing turns me off more then a solid full page wall of text. However, I decided to give it the 50-60 pages test and if I still couldn't deal then I would have tossed it aside for something else. Thankfully when she started interacting with others it was...more
Darrian
I think this is a good book for other readers to read because it describes how life is today and how she got cheated on at the beinginng then at the end she ends up finding her true love.She was a 40 year old woman she was a successful black woman in she had one son. Then one day she went out of town to Jamica her and this man name Taye Diggs they had seen each other then thats when they started talking then thats when the man had deep feelings for her liked the son too then one day they had got...more
Michelle
This is a story of a single mother who has gotten caught up in her corporate job and has started to lose touch with the things that are important to her. The story is about how she gets back in touch with her "inner self" and finds love in her life again.

The characters are all very likeable. It's a good story, although the author's writing style takes a little getting used to. She needs to be introduced to the serial comma. After a couple chapters you'll get used to that and the reading becomes...more
Kevin LargeTool
This is a glorious book. There is a black chick who has HIV but doesn't have a groove. AS we all know HIV makes farts smell like juicy fruit gum. So this black chick eats a ton of pigs feet and proceeds to fart on a beach in Ohio. The juicy fruit HIV fart travels to Somilia where a Muslim smells it. HE becomes so enamoured with this stank that me travels to america and starts to smell american womens asses, much like a horny bull mastiff. He finds the farting black chick, contracts the deadly HI...more
Tammy Washington
In my opinion - the best book written by Terry McMillan.
Lizann Dennis
The fairytale with a real twist is how I view this writing. Without any elements of magic McMillan creates the fairytale princess meets prince and despite tribulations have a happy ever after ending at least in a realistic viewpoint. I enjoyed the realism with which the story was told from the natural flow of language to the matter of fact attitude with which she presented the character Stella Payne. In some previous writings I have attempted the same flow by creating my version of a real charac...more
Amina
Nov 19, 2011 Amina is currently reading it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: black-lit
Can't really give an opinion on it yet as I haven't started reading the novel. I remember watching the movie when I was younger, but I didn't reach the ending. My interest in trying to give it a read, was sparked by an Oprah special about anger and forgiveness and Terry McMillan and her ex-husband were the focus of it.

Being that this was very close to what McMillan had experienced when she vacationed in Jamaica, the story seemed extra juicy to me and a copy was hanging out in my mother's book...more
Chana
I wouldn't exactly call this literature and fiction. It is romance, or chick-lit, if one is feeling generous.
Stella, rich and missing her groove (her job is boring even if she does make a ton of money, and she is divorced and tired of no romance), decides to go to Jamaica and see if she can have a little fun. She meets a boy and spends much of the book talking about how she shouldn't have a relationship with him as he is 20 and she is 42. This doesn't stop her of course. And he is probably the m...more
Andrea
This was my last summer read of that year. and this book was long...It went quick but it was wordy. I picked up this book because I enjoyed Waiting to Exhale but this book was not as character driven. I enjoyed the setting of course and the description of a get away in Jamaica. And what woman wouldn't like to believe that she could have a great fling with a younger man. It was also interesting to know that this was based on Terry McMillan's real life experience and how she met her husband. Ironi...more
Marie Curfman
So if you like to read a story written mostly in run on sentences that go on and on and on forever and are supposed to be like a stream of consciousness but really are just very distracting very annoying very redundant then you may just like this book but you also have to be ok with the fact that a 42 yr old falling in love with a 20 yr old on a jamaican vacation is preposterous ridiculous scandalous but oh it makes her feels so good but when he doesnt call for two days because God forbid he's w...more
Suzanne
The title is so good and the film version was so well done I thought I should read the original. It was disappointing. McMillan's continual use of run-on sentences depicting internal dialogue became tiresome and predictable. Her go-girl toughness and sexual preoccupation often plays into black stereotype. I do think the author conveyed the tenderness Stella felt for her son Quincy and that mother-son depiction was believable. I cannot say the same thing regarding her relationship with young Wins...more
Joanie
I just read this book for the second time but I also listened to the audiobook (read by Lynne Thigpen) a good 12 years ago. The book isn't that well written and this time around I definitely found more that irritated me but I'm going with my initial reaction when I read the book back in the late 90's. The book is so much better than the movie too-no big surprise there-even if Taye Diggs is really hot.

It's funny to read the book now knowing that Terry McMillan's own story did not have such a happ...more
Nicky
Interesting because it was a fictionalized account of a real event in the author's life (she went to Jamaica on a whim as an older single woman, then married a much younger man she met there shortly afterwards), which (many years later) went a very different way. It offers the reader a chance to look at how we look at the good times when we are experiencing them, and how we make decisions. What clues were there to her future public embarrasment and final resolution?
Valerie
A few years ago, thought I'd take along a light, but engaging novel to wile away the hours of down time spent lolling around the beaches of Barbados. Brought along this book. Absolutely hated it! I threw it across the room, the beach, the hotel lobby every time I reconsidered trying to complete it (hate the thought of leaving unfinished books behind) but I just couldn't do it--bad prose and I don't care how many awards were granted to this author previously!
Bernardine Santos
Cool enough. A book that will array the typical life of a black woman who is on her quest to bring back excitement in her almost arid life. The fickle-mindedness of Stella is kinda redundant. She kept on hesitating about her feelings for this young guy that she met while she's on her vacation in Jamaica, constantly thinking that she can't fall in love with someone who is twenty years younger than her. The ending is quite dull and unexpected.
Sazuru
So, I wanted light reading. Tightly composed fun read by someone who knows what they're doing in pop fiction. I have many mixed feelings about this book that I did, nevertheless, enjoy mostly. Lot of pep talk about exercise and maintaining womanly independence and all that. What I absolutely couldn't swallow was the constant name-brand-dropping and fashion-mag talk--I guess authors get paid money to do that, like movie producers?
Jala
This is probably the Terry McMillan book that I can relate to the most. Stella had the chance to discover for once in her life what it was SHE really wanted and needed. Without worrying about what her family, friends and co-workers would say or do about things from her choice in a love interest to her career choices. Great read, especially for a divorcee like myself turning 40.
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 99 100 next »
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (Paperback)
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (Hardcover)
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (Paperback)
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (Paperback)
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (Audio)

20704
Terry McMillan is an African-American author. Her interest in books comes from working at a library when she was sixteen. She received her BA in journalism in 1986 from the University of California at Berkeley. Her work is characterized by strong female protagonists.

Her first book, Mama, was self-promoted. She achieved national attention in 1992 with her third novel, Waiting to Exhale, which remai...more
More about Terry McMillan...
Waiting to Exhale Disappearing Acts Mama A Day Late and a Dollar Short Getting to Happy

Share This Book

Your website