I’ve never seen the film adaptation of How Stella Got Her Groove Back, but if it’s at all true to the source material, I bet it’s a lot of fun.
Stella Payne, a 42 year old divorced mother of an 11 year old boy, decides spontaneously to take a solo trip to Jamaica. She works hard and rarely relaxes, so why not? She buys some cute clothes, packs some books for the beach, and flies out. She does not expect to meet a man — much less the 21 year old boy that she falls for hard at the resort.
The whole plot of the novel really boils down to whether or not Stella can get over her self-consciousnesses about her relationship with the much younger Winston. Winston’s completely smitten, and see no problem with it. Stella worries about society, her family, her friends. But when she begins to really let go and enjoy it, it’s hard not to cheer her on. As a character, I just loved her. She’s smart, funny, sarcastic and tough. She’s also really prone to narrating/speaking in immense run on sentences, but I got used to it quickly and it makes for a fun storytelling device.