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Book Review of Sweetwater Creek

Sweetwater Creek
Sweetwater Creek
Author: Anne Rivers Siddons
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
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At twelve, Emily Parmenter knows about loneliness only too well. Left mostly to herself after her beautiful young mother disappeared and her beloved older brother died, Emily is keenly aware of yearning and loss. Rather than let the sadness consume her, she has built a life around the faded plantation where her remote father and hunting-obsessed brothers raise the legendary Lowcountry Boykin hunting spaniels. To some, it may seem that she lives within a meager, narrow, masculine world, but to Emily that life holds its own special magic: the storied deep-sea dolphins who regularly come to frolic and play in Sweetwater Creek; her extraordinary bond with the beautiful dogs she trains; her almost mystical communion with her own spaniel, Elvis; the dreaming old Lowcountry itself. Emily hides from the dreaded world here. For her, it is enough.

And then along comes Lulu Foxworth, troubled daughter of a truly grand plantation, who has run away from her hectic debutante season in Charleston to spend a healing summer with the quiet marshes and river, and the life-giving dogs. Where Emily's father sees their guest as an entree into a society he thought forever out of reach, Emily is at once threatened and utterly mystified. Lulu has a powerful enchantment and a charm of her own, and this, along with the dark, crippling secret she brings with her, will inevitably blow Emily's magical water world apart and let the real one in - but at a terrible price.

In my opinion, this book was just alright. I found the story to be a bit too long; with too many descriptive passages for my liking. Ultimately, the book boasted a promising build up to a rather disappointing ending in my opinion. My feelings might just be because of the type of mood I was in while reading, but this book never fully delivered on its promise for me. It was a bit of a disappointment for me, because I've read several other books by this author that I absolutely loved. I had to give Sweetwater Creek by Anne Rivers Siddons a B+!