Magnolia Creek

by Jill Marie Landis

On the eve of the Civil War, Sara Collier marries the dashing Dru Talbot, just before he rides off to join the Confederate army. But fate cuts short their chance for happiness when Dru dies tragically on the battlefield. As a widow, Sara rises above her grief, refusing to mourn her life away. But one wrong choice made with an open heart takes her away from her hometown–and challenges Sara in ways she never could have imagined. Though she returns to Magnolia Creek an outcast, the sorrow in her life makes her stronger.

A year after the war's end, battle-scarred surgeon Dru Talbot surprises everyone when he returns home, clinging to the dream of starting life over with his bride. Yet nothing could have prepared Dru for the truth that awaits him in Magnolia Creek.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical Fiction, Civil War, Historical, Fiction, Womens Fiction

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

JILL MARIE LANDIS is the bestselling author of nearly thirty novels which have appeared on the NYT bestseller list, USA Today and other national bestseller lists. She has won numerous awards for her heartfelt characters and sweeping emotional historical romances that include SUMMER MOON and MAGNOLIA CREEK and the Irish Angels Series; HEART OF STONE, HEART OF LIES, and HEART OF GLASS. All of her Historical Romances are available in eBook format.

She is currently writing The Tiki Goddess Mysteries series which includes MAI TAI ONE ON, TWO TO MANGO, THREE TO GET LEI'D, TOO HOT FOUR HULA and HAWAII FIVE UH-OH! from Bell Bridge Books.

Toes in the sand and head in the clouds, she is living the dream in Hawaii with her husband, Steve. Jill Marie loves to spend hours at the beach reading or writing and she also loves dancing the hula.

Reviews

[Deanne Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read by Jill Marie Landis and I wish I could give this book 10 stars. I can see the research that was put into this book. It feels like it could have authentically taken place in the 1800's. Some historical books have a few old fashioned items mentioned but the way the plot is you really can't tell what the time period is. That is not the case here from the description of the clothing to the setting, the description of the civil war and it's aftermath to the placement of the instruments in the doctor's office the authenticity is there and I love it. Highly recommended to historical fiction lovers!
Pub Date 06 Sep 2017
Thank you to NetGalley and BelleBooks for a review copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for a fair review"
Set in the aftermath of the Civil War, a historical romance with characters that have suffered and seen too much, but still have to face more death and destruction.
A doctor trying to pick up his life after the ravages of war and a determined woman with a little daughter are the leading characters in this story with plenty of heroism and collective and individual drama.
I'm grateful to the publisher, Bell Bridge Books, and NetGalley for providing a free copy.

[kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won't recap it's been done already. But I didn't buy the ending. I don't care how many yellow fever victims she nursed or even if she found the cure for yellow fever. She was a girl from the wrong side of the tracks . She ran off with a Yankee soldier. She had a baby out of wedlock. She deserted her mentally unstable sister in law and then came back with her love child when she needed a home to stay in. The hero may have forgiven her but don't tell me a small southern town that had been decimated by war would.

Though what the hero saw in her escaped me. He had gone to medical school and she thought she was on par with him as a healer. One of her cures was to shoot a bullet into a pig and then flatten it and wear it around the neck. Yet he took her with him on house calls. That aside it seems to me they would have had to move out west to escape the stigma attached to her past. No way her daughter would have ever been accepted. Couldn't see the HEA in this situation.

[Susan Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fifteen yr old (Sara) meets a man (Dru) going to medical school and it's love at first sight. Fate has her becoming a companion for his sister (Lou) who is agoraphobic and has anxiety. Dru returns two years later to find her in his home and after two weeks they marry.
Dru agrees to join the Confederate army with his friends and leaves the day after the marriage! Stike one against Dru.
News comes after over a year that he is dead and his friends are witness to the fact. Sara ends up running off with a Yankee and getting pregnant. We know the Yankee was a loser but we never find out exactly what happened.
Meanwhile Dru was severely injured but not dead and had memory loss. His memory came back after several weeks but he decided not to tell anyone for 6 months (including his family) so he would have a break from being in the field. By the time he sent his family a letter there was no mail delivery to the area. Strike two.
Sara returns to Lou with toddler in hand and the very next day Dru returns from the dead after SIX YEARS.
For the majority of the rest of the book Dru resents Sara for running away with the Yankee (she was 18 and granted it was a bad decision but she thought he was dead), ignores her daughter and treats her terribly even though she tries to be a good wife. Strike three.
So Dru feels that Sarah didn't really love him, cheated with a Yankee and embarrassed him, and had a child out of wedlock but 1) he left Sarah the day after marrying her 2) Sara thought him dead 3) he didn't write immediately to inform her he was alive and 4) he's been gone 6 YEARS!
Suffice it to say that I did not like Dru who, to my mind, was a sanctimonious jerk.

[Nasty Lady MJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting plot weak characters and subplots that were sided left this a two star review.

I'm pretty much glutton for any back for the dead storyline and Civil War era HR aren't something you see that often. The most memorable one I've read of this particularly period is probably the old Kathleen Woodiweiss Ashes in the Wind which is a classic BUT a bodice ripper. This one was written in 2002 the age sort of shows.

I think the weakest thing about it were the protagonists. MFC is beyond stupid and other than her love child being essentially the reason the the MMC is mad at her (because she dared sleep with someone else a year after she thought he was fucking dead) the kid and the dalliance serves no purpose. I kept waiting for the other guy to show up in the third act of the novel but nope he's essentially more or less a sperm donor. Hell, if someone like Lisa Kleypas had been writing this shit you know he would've came in and ruined things third act. I think that's one of the things is I expected characterization like a Kleypas novel and you don't get that. The MMC I thought could've had a more poignant arc than he did and honestly at the end of the day they're just archetypes.

I was annoyed that a potential more interesting romance essentially got killed since one of those characters got killed off in the third act of the novel. I honestly would've much rather had read that story about the agorphobic shut in and her freed servant though I don't think this writer would've likely been able to pull it off in a way where it wouldn't appeal icky and tasteful. I was already cringing at some of the interaction there, but they had more chemistry than the leads and of course their story got shit on. By having the recluse die of yellow fever and then the servant character randomly leaving because his plotline was done. Really, both of them got it dirty in this book. Had it been done appropriately and tastefully it likely would've been a better story than the early twenty something trollop and the doctor

Honestly, I go back and forth whether I want to sell this one or not. I am going to see if I can find other HR's set in this period. Just doing a random search and it looks like Alyssa Cole has some stuff written that actually seems like it might be more tastefully done than this book.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jill Marie Landis has been one of my favorite authors for many years. Any time I can read one of her books, I count myself lucky. “Magnolia Creek” is such a book. Any story based on Civil War characters is usually a favorite of mine. Sara Collier Talbot has returned to Magnolia Creek, Kentucky as a young war widow who was duped by a Yankee officer, left town with him and became pregnant. He left her then, unmarried with a child. She decides to go home. The Collier family is a rough and tumble bunch, making their living during the war selling moonshine. Sara’s father was not welcoming to his daughter and hit her when she tried to see her family, called her a slut and told her to leave. She has no choice at this point, but to go to the home of her dead husband and hope that his sister Louzanna will take pity on her and her child.

Dr. Dru Talbot has been declared killed in battle, but in reality he is still alive and making his way to Magnolia Creek too. He has no idea of the trouble Sara has had and only looks forward to a loving reunion with her. When he finds out about the baby, which is not his, he spurns her, not forgiving her and telling her he no longer loves her.

The whole town of Magnolia Creek turns their back on Sara, not even acknowledging her presence nor that of her little girl. When yellow fever makes its appearance in the town, Dr. Talbot needs help taking care of his patients. Since Sara has had the disease, she volunteers unselfishly to help the townspeople. Even then, someone is out to kill her. She is attacked and left for dead. Will she ever be reunited with Dru as husband and wife and live the life they started before the war? You will have to read this book to find out.

Once again Ms. Landis has written a wonderful love story, a fine historical romance. I’m looking forward to more from her.

I downloaded a free Kindle copy from NetGalley.com in return for my honest review. You can find this review on my blog at http://wp.me/p2pjIt-sl. Check out other reviews at http://imhookedonbooks.wordpress.com.

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sara Collier is 15 when she first meets Dru Talbot on the ferry her large backwoods family operates. He's wealthy and off to medical school. Two years later when he returns, she's his sister's nurse/attendant. Louzanna shut herself into their house the day her fiance died and won't come out. She also has nervous episodes. After a two week courtship, Sara and Dru marry and have their wedding night before he leaves to fight for the South in the Civil War. A year or so after he leaves, his best friend returns and tells Sara he died. Sara mourned for a year and then is courted by a Yankee and leaves with him. Pregnant and unmarried, he deserts her and she makes her way back to Magnolia Creek after the war with her daughter Elizabeth. Louzanna immediately takes her in. The next day Dru returns from the dead hoping Sara is still there. He can't accept at first that she has a child by another man - especially a Yankee. They still love each other, but it's hard to overcome the prejudice of the town and their feelings of betrayal. After nursing the town through a yellow fever epidemic, the town and Dru come around to accepeting their marriage and her daughter.

[Eclectic Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

It had been 5 years since Sara Collier Talbot left Magnolia Creek, Kentucky, as a fallen woman who ran off with a Yankee lieutenant only a year after finding out that her husband, Dru, had been killed in the Civil War. With no alternative, Sara swallows her pride and returns to Magnolia Creek with a love child in tow, and to the disapproval of the townspeople, Dru’s sister Louzanna, “Lou”, takes in Sara and her daughter. How much more can Sara take? Is her life in danger?

After 6 long years the war is over, and Dr. Dru Talbot, finally released from a prisoner of war camp, is going home to his wife of one day. Their whirlwind courtship and marriage were fast, but having that one night as husband and wife before he went off to war is what kept him alive. His hopes of starting a family with Sara and opening a quiet practice are just what he needs to help forget the horrors of war. Can he forgive Sara for what she’s done?

See my complete review at The Eclectic Review

[Natalija · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 33%

​I’ve saved Magnolia Creek for years, waiting for the right moment to dive into its rare and refreshing premise. It is so hard to find a romance where the heroine is the one seeking forgiveness for a "mistake" rather than the hero.

​Unfortunately, the execution failed the concept. The pacing is glacial, bogged down by endless internal monologues that stall the plot. While I generally dislike flashbacks, I could have tolerated them if the present-day story had any momentum. Instead, I spent the first third of the book trapped in the characters' heads as they rehashed the same thoughts repeatedly. A unique premise can only carry a book so far if the execution is this sluggish. Sadly, this was a "right time, wrong book" situation for me.

[Lenore Kuipers-Cummins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVED this book. Reading it was like stepping into another time period...in this case the Civil War. Magnolia Creek was like many of the communities at the time; half of the population was for the Confederacy, and half was for the Union.
Sara Collier, from the "bad" side of town, marries Dru Talbot, from the "monied" side of town. They had only known each other a few week, so there was a lot of gossip around town. They married on the eve of the Civil War, then Dru left for the Confederacy. He was a doctor.
Sara was living in Dru's house when he left; a neighbor came by telling her that Dru was dead. That's when everything went downhill for Sara, and she left Magnolia Creek.

[Alce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sara had choice to either
1. Stay at home, get his husband to be found legally dead and marry another man as widow.
Or
2. Run away with another man and leave your old life behind.

I can get behind either option. But she had chosen third way. She left home with another man, but then decided to return and act as a wife. It doesn't sit well with me. You can't have argument that you was widow when you fucked another man and then insist that you're still a wife. Choose one or another. Either you're a "widow" and you should left your husband free of you or your're wife and you should beg forgiveness for your betrayal. Don't make excuses for yourself.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great book by Jill Marie Landis. Set in the aftermath of the Civil War, one of my favorite time periods to read about. She weaves a very compelling story. A lot of research went into this book. Definitely one to pick up if you are looking for a great read.

[Janice Tolifson]

Sara marries Dru Talbot a doctor but joins the confederate army and leaves her alsone. She hears that he died in the war so follows a union officer and has a child. She returns to Magnolia Creek to Dru's sister. Dru survives the war and returns.

[Cliff Hembree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Jill Marie Landis’s writing and weaving of story lines and characters. I am an Old Retired State Trooper/Detective and have seen more than I wanted and most People, this Book had Me tearing up near the End.

[Lisa Crookston · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good but not as good as Summer Moon if I remember right. You were really rooting for Sara & Dru.

[Cheryl A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a good book. Set in Civil War Kentucky with Appalachian "healing"

[Maryann Sulic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating, moving story. One of my favorite authors.

[Jackie Holt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the weaving of history into a story

[Jennie-Lynn Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartwarming story.

[Marly · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first time reading anything by this author. I have to say this book didn’t disappoint, I can’t wait to read more by her.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the aftermath of the Civil War, this was an ok book about the Talbot Family and their friends family and neighbors. Magnolia Creek is a very small town of 350 inhabitants in Southern Kentucky. The townspeople were split whether to support the North of South during the war. Dr. Dru Talbot chose to serve in the Southern Army and was reported dead by a family friend. His young wife, Sara, who was living in the family home with Dru's semi-invalid sister, Lou, took off with a Northern Lt. after her husband's reported death. She never married Lt. Jonathan Smith, but had a child with him and he left her, After the war, she went to Ohio to find him, only to find out she wasn't the only woman looking for him. She made her way back to Magnolia Creek, and moved in with Lou, who was on her own after her servant, Jamie, was conscripted by the Yankees.

After she has been home 1 day, her husband shows up. He was only wounded, but left for dead. This sets off a bunch of complications, of course. Every one in town won't have anything to do with the Talbots, husband Dru won't have anything to do with Sara. Even Jamie returns home, but the situation is anything but good for the family until an epidemic of yellow fever comes to the town. Only Dru and Sara and an elderly lady volunteer to nurse the sick. Of course, this brings the town together in the end.

Sounds like a soap opera, doesn't it? The writing,however, is very good and very descriptive. This saves the predictable story to an extent.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

09/13/08
TITLE/AUTHOR: MAGNOLIA CREEK by Jill Marie Landis
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Historical Romance/2002/367 pgs
SERIES/STAND ALONE: Stand Alone
TIME/PLACE: 1860's/Kentucky
CHARACTERS: Sara Collier/wife to Dr. Dru Talbot
FIRST LINES:A young woman clothed in widow's weeds rode in the back of a crude farm wagon & watched the landscape roll by through a cascading ebony veil draped over the wide brim of her black hat.

COMMENTS: Sweet romance. Sara's from a poor family on the other side of the creek and has been taught the art of healing and herbs from her grandfather. Dru is a medical physician from a family w/ money and name. The 2 fall in love but their marriage seems to be over before it had a chance when Dru decides to join the confederate troops and fight in the Civil War. One of the local soldiers returns and tells Sara and the town that Dru has died. After a period of mourning Sara takes off w/ a Yankee soldier only to return later w/ a baby. Soon after her husband Dru also returns home, altho' he was presumed dead he wasn't and went thru a period of amnesia and then couldn't get any communications to his wife or sister. Their marriage at this point is very tenuous and Sara won't accept Dru until he can love her and her child w/ an open heart and forgiveness.

[Ladygiodesi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambientato alla fine della Guerra Civile in America, precisamente nel Kentucky, la storia racconta del ritorno a casa di Dru dopo la sconfitta. Chirurgo in guerra e fatto prigioniero, creduto morto da amici e familiari, affronta un viaggio rischioso per tornare in una casa profondamente cambiata dalla guerra: non troverà più infatti l'amata moglie in attesa angosciosa del suo ritorno, ma troverà una moglie che, credendolo morto, si è allontanata da casa cercando la felicità con un altro uomo. Ma Sara è costretta a ritornare, abbandonata da chi l'ha solo presa in giro lasciandola con una bimba da crescere.

Siamo nel 1866: un periodo dove l'adulterio non era accettato, neppure con una scusante come la guerra... e dove un bambino deve nascere solo all'interno di un matrimonio, altrimenti sarà considerato bastardo per tutta la vita. E sono queste due particolarità che rendono diverso questo romance storico dalla classica linea dei romance: i protagonisti già si conoscono, addirittura sono già sposati, non vi è quindi la fase della scoperta reciproca e del corteggiamento, più o meno sensuale.

Per il resto, rimane il classico romance: la scrittura è scorrevole, vengono vissuti i punti di vista di entrambi i personaggi, non mancano le scene passionali. Lettura piacevole, con l'elemento in più dato dal moralismo benpensante dell'epoca.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** "Magnolia Creek" is a Kentucky mill town, just after the Confederate-Union war ends. I like the apparent internal consistency, better than Heat Wave or Lover's Lane, also by Jill Landis. Although characters still wallow in their pasts too much, the serious bloody war conditions and many deaths in the story, justify sad heavy emotion in what elsewise would be a light romance. I dislike woo woo voodoo and how lust equals love.
The Talbot mill was destroyed by the army and can no longer finance lone agraphobe Lou. So when her voluptuous sister-in-law and herbal healer Sara returns, the penniless weak spinster welcomes help, despite the bastard toddler in tow. Dru, their beloved handsome doctor who courted in a whirlwind two weeks, and ran off with the Rebs after one day marriage, returns from the dead to shock both women. He, naturally, takes infidelity to heart. The town shuns them, someone near fatally stabs Sara, then dozens fall to yellow fever and suicide leaves the Talbots as the only medical support.

[Diane Wachter · Rating 4 out of 5]

HB-B @ 2002, 10/02. On the eve of the Civil War, Sara marries Dru, just before he rides off to join the Confederate Army. Dru is killed on the battlefield, and Sara refuses to mourn her life away. She runs away with a Union soldier, has a daughter out of wedlock, and returns to Magnolia Creek and outcast. A year after the end of the war, Dru returns home to find his life turned upside down. Very good romance.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book, I enjoyed it as much as I did her other books that I've read. I cried a lot over the story line... but I'm probably just extra emotional. It is a historical romance... but its not your typical story. I give it a 9 out of 10. :) (10 being the best) I think this story would appeal to those who don't like the normal mushy romances. :)

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dramatic civil war romance. Dr. Dru Talbot returns home to Kentucky after his family has been told he was killed in the war. His wife Sara has a young daughter and his sister is destitute. Yellow fever ravages the town but love conquers all.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. A little slow in the beginning, but picked up towards the middle.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story about coming home from the civil war and all the changes in peoples lives.