Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
Buy Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Women's Fiction
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A heart-warming story about family values, love and friendship which is just perfect for when you need a lazy, indulgent read. Definitely recommended.
Buy? Maybe Borrow? Yes
Publisher: MIRA
Lydia Goetz's latest knitting class is called 'Knit to Quit' and it's designed for all those people who are trying to give something up. The obvious culprit is smoking, but the people who join the class have other problems. Phoebe Rylander wants to give up a man. They'd been engaged to be married but Clark had been arrested for attempting to buy sex from a prostitute – and this was the second time. Phoebe is determined that enough is enough – despite the fact that her mother would like her to forgive Clark. It's not Phoebe she's thinking of as much as the social connection with his family.
Also heading towards the class at A Good Yarn is Hutch Hutchinson who needs to reduce his stress levels and do something to help an injury on his hand which isn't healing well. His father died of a heart attack when he was fifty eight and everyone is determined that although Hutch had to follow his father in the family business there's no need to follow him to an early grave.
Alix Turner does want to stop smoking. She and husband Jordan want to start a family and Alix has reduced her cigarette consumption to about five a day but can't quite seem to kick the habit completely. Is there something else that's getting in the way?
Out on Blossom Street there's a thriving community. Besides being shopkeepers some people live there too. Anne-Marie Roche has just returned from a trip to Paris with her adopted daughter, Ellen and she spent the flight back to Seattle relishing her new happiness. Her husband died young and one of her dreams was to travel to Paris with someone she loved and she can still hardly believe that Ellen is hers. There's a cloud on the horizon though – in the form of a man who believes that he might be Ellen's father, but does this cloud have an unexpected silver lining?
Ellen's not the only child with experience of fostering and the adoption process. Casey comes to stay with Lydia and her family for a couple of nights, but foster homes for difficult twelve year olds who need to be in a particular school area are hard to find, but how long can Lydia cope with the uncommunicative Casey?
When I picked up Summer on Blossom Street I had a sore throat, a streaming cold and a need for something as soothing as chicken soup. I wanted a gentle, intriguing story with characters I could warm to (or loathe – you need them too) and a plot that's got a satisfying number of twists and turns but not so many that you have to work hard to remember what's going on. I needed an author with a sense of humour and I wanted to feel good about how things worked out and have something to think about. Debbie Macomber does female characters particularly well and I appreciated her insight into the feelings of children in care. If you're looking for a heart-warming story which ticks all the boxes then Summer on Blossom Street could well be your answer.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag. We also have a review of The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber.
If this is the type of book you're looking for then we can also recommend It's The Little Things by Erica James and Sleepless Nights by Sarah Bilston.
You can read more book reviews or buy Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber at Amazon.com.
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Reviewed by Sue Magee