Savannah from Savannah, Savannah Comes Undone, & Savannah by the Sea
By: Denise Hildreth
The Savannah series made me smile. This is one of those rare times that I was just wandering the rows of books at the public library and the title caught my eye, and it was a great series. You never know what you are going to end up with when you pick up an unknown author in the library. But, when I saw that there were two books, I thought, oh good, a series, so I grabbed them. I later found that it is a 3 book series and the library didn’t have the third, so I had to order book 3 from Amazon.com.
From the very beginning I was hooked. The story, between the 3 books, is one year in the life of Savannah Phillips who is from Savannah, Georgia. In Savannah from Savannah, she has just finished her Master’s degree at the University of Georgia and is moving back home. She recently won a contest that the end result was an award and her novel being published, but she declines the huge opportunity because she suspects that as usual, her mother has butted in (again) and fixed the contest. Savannah struggles, but lands a job with the Savannah Chronicle (her hometown newspaper) as the Human Interest story writer. Because of her spunky personality, she has run-ins with her boss, she doesn’t get along with Joshua North or “curly locks,” the guy that has a desk next to her at the paper, and it seems that everyone is waiting for her to fail at her new job. She tries to prove that she can do everything on her own, to her mother, her co-workers, and primarily to herself. She runs into some problems writing her first story, and learns some tough grown up lessons in the meantime. This introduction to the character is perfect and I really enjoyed this book.
Savannah Comes Undone starts right where the first book left off. Her mother, Victoria Phillips (never Vicky-out loud anyway), is chained to a statue in front of the court house that bears the Ten Commandments. There is a huge upheaval and half the town wants the statue gone and the other half wants it to stay. Savannah runs into personal convictions that she has to deal with on a Spiritual level as she learns who she really is, aside from her family and what she’s been taught all of her life. She meets some great characters that teach her some very valuable lessons in this novel.
After working at the Chronicle for 10 months, the Phillips family is going to Florida on vacation in the third book, Savannah by the Sea. She talks her boss into letting her go for research purposes to find a story on the many emotional struggles of the hurricane victims, a.k.a. sister wants to go on vacation. The “family” vacation includes her younger brother Thomas, her mother and father, their dogs, Amber-the beauty queen/Vicky double, and her best friend Paige. An unexpected person is also at the same beach in Florida and it turns her vacation upside down. This book is definitely my favorite of the three and there is actually an opening for her to write another book, I’ll keep you posted on if that ever comes about.
Some of my favorite concepts in this series start with the fact that the main character is a Christian. This book is not publicized as a Christian novel, but I was pleasantly surprised when Savannah lives her life according to her convictions. She “tills” every morning, meaning she has a quiet time with God, while she jogs with her Dad’s dog Duke. She prays, listens, and God teachers her many lessons on these early excursions. She has a life changing encounter with the Almighty in all 3 books that will convict and uplift you. Another characteristic of these books that I enjoyed was her personality. She does not cuss, but she’ll get caught about to say something un-lady-like and then rephrase the sentence midway through or give another sentence all together. For example: “I would like to find some hard liquor.” “Savannah Phillips!” Joshua rebuked. “Do you have something to tell me?” “I said-” “She always does this,” my father chimed in. “I know.” They both took a sip of their coffee. “I said, let’s make sure Duke doesn’t lick her.” Dad raised his eyebrow. “That was one of your more pitiful attempts lately.”
She also says “sister” all of the time, either talking in third person, or even talking about another woman in the book. For example: “Sister’s gotta go to her apartment.” Savannah’s character is a fun person that I could see myself getting along with. She is brave and confrontational, but yet she can be quite blind to what is going on around her. These three books are a lot of fun to read and I would encourage anyone to pick them up. The one thing that struck me odd is that I did find some pretty big errors in the books. Usually it was the incorrect usage of a word, or inconsistency within a paragraph. For example in Savannah Comes Undone, she walks into her bosses’ office and the books said: “He looked up as I walked in. He answered me without ever looking up.” What??? Little things like that, made me laugh, maybe the author needs to find a better editor. If her other books are as good as this series, I would be honored to edit her books. If you get a chance, let me know what you think about this blog or these books if you read them.
By: Denise Hildreth
The Savannah series made me smile. This is one of those rare times that I was just wandering the rows of books at the public library and the title caught my eye, and it was a great series. You never know what you are going to end up with when you pick up an unknown author in the library. But, when I saw that there were two books, I thought, oh good, a series, so I grabbed them. I later found that it is a 3 book series and the library didn’t have the third, so I had to order book 3 from Amazon.com.
From the very beginning I was hooked. The story, between the 3 books, is one year in the life of Savannah Phillips who is from Savannah, Georgia. In Savannah from Savannah, she has just finished her Master’s degree at the University of Georgia and is moving back home. She recently won a contest that the end result was an award and her novel being published, but she declines the huge opportunity because she suspects that as usual, her mother has butted in (again) and fixed the contest. Savannah struggles, but lands a job with the Savannah Chronicle (her hometown newspaper) as the Human Interest story writer. Because of her spunky personality, she has run-ins with her boss, she doesn’t get along with Joshua North or “curly locks,” the guy that has a desk next to her at the paper, and it seems that everyone is waiting for her to fail at her new job. She tries to prove that she can do everything on her own, to her mother, her co-workers, and primarily to herself. She runs into some problems writing her first story, and learns some tough grown up lessons in the meantime. This introduction to the character is perfect and I really enjoyed this book.
Savannah Comes Undone starts right where the first book left off. Her mother, Victoria Phillips (never Vicky-out loud anyway), is chained to a statue in front of the court house that bears the Ten Commandments. There is a huge upheaval and half the town wants the statue gone and the other half wants it to stay. Savannah runs into personal convictions that she has to deal with on a Spiritual level as she learns who she really is, aside from her family and what she’s been taught all of her life. She meets some great characters that teach her some very valuable lessons in this novel.
After working at the Chronicle for 10 months, the Phillips family is going to Florida on vacation in the third book, Savannah by the Sea. She talks her boss into letting her go for research purposes to find a story on the many emotional struggles of the hurricane victims, a.k.a. sister wants to go on vacation. The “family” vacation includes her younger brother Thomas, her mother and father, their dogs, Amber-the beauty queen/Vicky double, and her best friend Paige. An unexpected person is also at the same beach in Florida and it turns her vacation upside down. This book is definitely my favorite of the three and there is actually an opening for her to write another book, I’ll keep you posted on if that ever comes about.
Some of my favorite concepts in this series start with the fact that the main character is a Christian. This book is not publicized as a Christian novel, but I was pleasantly surprised when Savannah lives her life according to her convictions. She “tills” every morning, meaning she has a quiet time with God, while she jogs with her Dad’s dog Duke. She prays, listens, and God teachers her many lessons on these early excursions. She has a life changing encounter with the Almighty in all 3 books that will convict and uplift you. Another characteristic of these books that I enjoyed was her personality. She does not cuss, but she’ll get caught about to say something un-lady-like and then rephrase the sentence midway through or give another sentence all together. For example: “I would like to find some hard liquor.” “Savannah Phillips!” Joshua rebuked. “Do you have something to tell me?” “I said-” “She always does this,” my father chimed in. “I know.” They both took a sip of their coffee. “I said, let’s make sure Duke doesn’t lick her.” Dad raised his eyebrow. “That was one of your more pitiful attempts lately.”
She also says “sister” all of the time, either talking in third person, or even talking about another woman in the book. For example: “Sister’s gotta go to her apartment.” Savannah’s character is a fun person that I could see myself getting along with. She is brave and confrontational, but yet she can be quite blind to what is going on around her. These three books are a lot of fun to read and I would encourage anyone to pick them up. The one thing that struck me odd is that I did find some pretty big errors in the books. Usually it was the incorrect usage of a word, or inconsistency within a paragraph. For example in Savannah Comes Undone, she walks into her bosses’ office and the books said: “He looked up as I walked in. He answered me without ever looking up.” What??? Little things like that, made me laugh, maybe the author needs to find a better editor. If her other books are as good as this series, I would be honored to edit her books. If you get a chance, let me know what you think about this blog or these books if you read them.
1 comment:
Well, I can't thank you enough for reviewing my three Savannah books. What a treat! If you ever want to do an interview just let me know. I'd be honored...
Take Care
Denise Hildreth
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