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Book Reviews of How Stella Got Her Groove Back

How Stella Got Her Groove Back
How Stella Got Her Groove Back
Author: Terry McMillan
ISBN-13: 9780670869909
ISBN-10: 0670869902
Publication Date: 5/1/1996
Pages: 368
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 74

3.6 stars, based on 74 ratings
Publisher: Viking Books
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

42 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

TakingTime avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 1072 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Love with a younger man....and the authors own experience !! this was a movie with Angela Bassett...great movie...better book.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 39 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
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 a bit more smooth.

All in all, an enjoyable story.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 11 more book reviews
Sexy and fun to read novel about an older woman dating a younger man.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 85 more book reviews
So much better than the movie!
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 42 more book reviews
great book....better than the movie.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 5 more book reviews
Even if you've already seen the movie, the book is a great read!
beachgal avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 30 more book reviews
This is one of the best books of all time for fun, feeling good about yourself, and believing that anything can and does happen! Stella is a single mother who is a success at her job and at motherhood, but is tired, feels rundown, lonely, and depressed. Suddenly she decides to go on a vacation, alone, to Jamaica, something totally out of character for her. It changes her life...she falls in love with a man much younger than her, she finds her 'groove' and what happens next will astound you! The book is much better, of course, but it was also made into a movie that was pretty good as well.
gottasalsa avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 38 more book reviews
Hilarious, poignant - just wonderful.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 117 more book reviews
Even better than waiting to exhale
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on
Fun and interesting - great beach reading or if you are looking for something a couple of notches above "guilty pleasure."
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 715 more book reviews
#1 NY Times Bestseller. Maybe you seen Terry McMillan & her new husband she is divorcing on Oprah--was a good show. McMillan's book Waiting to Exhale was made into a movie. This book is about a hard-working Black career woman who takes a Caribbean vacation...and gets her groove back with a younger man.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 12 more book reviews
(From Amazon.com) Stella Payne is a Superwoman who has everything--except a man to rock her world, something she's convinced she can well do without. On a spur-of-the-moment Jamaican vacation she meets Winston, a man half her age, and finds, to her dismay, that her world is indeed well and truly rocked. Stella soon realizes that she's come to a cataclysmic juncture in her life, one that forces new and difficult questions about her passions and expectations.

The movie was better!
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 13 more book reviews
From Publishers Weekly:
Her readers may be surprised that, after the gritty, tell-it-as-it-is Mama and Waiting to Exhale, McMillan has now written a fairy tale. Her "forty-fucking-two-year-old" heroine, divorcee Stella Payne, possesses a luxurious house and pool in northern California, a lucrative job as a security analyst, a BMW and a truck, a personal trainer and an adorable 11-year- old son-but no steady guy. On a whim, Stella decides to vacation in Jamaica, and she narrates the ensuing events in a revved-up voice, naked of punctuation, that alternates between high-voltage energy and erotic languor. Romance comes to Stella under tropical skies-but there's a problem. Gorgeous, seductive Winston, the chef-trainee with whom she enjoys passionate sex (explicitly detailed), is shockingly young: he's not quite 21. Naturally, Stella wonders if he really loves her; endless soul-searching and a few tepid complications occupy the remainder of the narrative. When Stella loses her job, it's no sweat; she has enough savings to maintain her lifestyle. When fate throws two other gorgeous men her way, she immediately decides they are boring and isn't tempted for a minute. Meanwhile, her intense preoccupation with feminine deodorant sprays and the smell of women's public bathrooms is rather strange, to say the least. McMillan's expletive-strewn narrative accommodates such musings, however, and readers who have been yearning for a Judith Krantz of the black bourgeoisie-albeit one with a dirty mouth and a more ebullient spirit-will be pleased with this fantasy of sexual fulfillment. 100,000 first printing; major ad/ promo; first serial rights to People and Essence; BOMC main selection; film rights to 20th Century Fox; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
TDollface avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 7 more book reviews
This was a great book. It was a great story about taking chances on love, and accepting what feels right to you in relationships. With humor, fear, joy, and a little pain at times, McMillian's character Stella was believable. Stella faced frowns of disapproval and conflict from friends and family. She moved past her own doubts and fears to embrace the love she felt for a younger man, rather than continuing to live without love to follow the status quo.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 7 more book reviews
What can I say? Another wonderful TM novel. Make you rethink the age difference thing. If it's something you've thought about.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 4 more book reviews
a perfect beach book...i really loved this one and would definitely recommend it!
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 33 more book reviews
Great Read... lots of fun!!
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 25 more book reviews
You know that was good. I read when it was first released and was not disappointed!
starrynight avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on
Fun in the sun with Stella, on vacation in Jamaica. Humorous and outrageous. Can't take this one seriously. By the author of Waiting to Exhale.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 35 more book reviews
When 42 year old, divorced, high powered investment analyst Stella Payne takes a spur-of-the-moment vacation to Jamaica, her world is rocked to the core. Not just by the relaxing effects of the sun and sea, but by a tall, lean, soft-spoken Jamaican who is half her age. More than a love story, it is ultimately a novel about how a woman saves her own life and what she must risk to do it.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 3 more book reviews
very hard to understand becouse she doesnt use .!? but once you get past that its a very good book
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 166 more book reviews
After her big success with 'Waiting to Exhale' Terry McMillan wrote about the glories of older-woman-younger-man-on-a-tropical-beach romance - based largely on the experience of her own life.
twosey avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 52 more book reviews
I enjoy Terry McMillan, but this book was one huge run-on sentance. I found it hard to read and started to search for conversation quotes so that the story could continue. Having said that, I did enjoy the romance of it. The author does convey the unpredictable and undeniable power of love.
MissC avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 100 more book reviews
Terry sure knows how to put pen to paper! She keeps you captivated from beginning to end in this juicy story about Stella and Winston.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 14 more book reviews
This was a good book. It was hard for me to adapt to her writing style initially but then the content took over and drew me in.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 11 more book reviews
This is a fantastic book about a women believing in herself again. This was also a great movie. I highly recommend this romance!
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 141 more book reviews
great story
cajunqueen avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 25 more book reviews
What can I say but Terry McMillan at her finest. Funny, dramatic, and entertaining. You'll love it!
tish avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 384 more book reviews
as always the book si better than the movie. you will get a better idea of what is really going on with the peopel involved.
loved the trips to Jamaica. if you are over a "certain" age it is a great read!
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 366 more book reviews
This novel is based on the author's own experience of finding love with a much younger man while on an island vacation
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 22 more book reviews
A real fun book to read.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on
Great Book!!
brownsugar avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 16 more book reviews
I really enjoyed reading this book I could not put it down I've seen the movie but the book is so much better and much more detailed
genieinabottle avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 37 more book reviews
I really expected to dislike this title, so I started out just planning to read the first few pages. But it turned out to be a really fun, light, sexy read that stayed interesting throughout. I've since discovered I rather like this author!
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 15 more book reviews
Bestr Seller
Chakitty avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 67 more book reviews
Amazon.com
The author of Waiting to Exhale checks in again with a fresh, exuberant novel. Stella Payne is a Superwoman who has everything--except a man to rock her world, something she's convinced she can well do without. On a spur-of-the-moment Jamaican vacation she meets Winston, a man half her age, and finds, to her dismay, that her world is indeed well and truly rocked. Stella soon realizes that she's come to a cataclysmic juncture in her life, one that forces new and difficult questions about her passions and expectations.
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on
excellent
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 19 more book reviews
this is a good chick-lit book. I think any woman can identify with the character.
sues avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 94 more book reviews
A pretty lame book, even more so now that the author (who based it--loosely?--on her own life) is now divorcing (messily) the young man she falls in love with in this book. Oh, yeah, and now (in real life) he says he's gay.
gottasalsa avatar reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 38 more book reviews
Marvelous entertainment
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 18 more book reviews
Love Love Love this one
reviewed How Stella Got Her Groove Back on + 53 more book reviews
This is one of my favorite movies...but the book makes me wish I could have seen this version. Excellent read.