A Room with a View

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster is a classic. I picked up the book because I liked the movie version with Helen Bonham Carter and Maggie Smith. The book and movie are quite similar, though the book has a bit more depth.

In the story Lucy and her older chaperone, Charlotte, are traveling Europe. In Italy they were expecting a room with a view of the river Arno but are disappointed on arrival that they did not. After much discussion another hotel guest agrees to switch rooms with them. That hotel guest is a very handsome young man that is also a bit of a free spirit. Lucy forms an attachment to him and a romance ensues. As their journey continues to Rome, Lucy meets Cecil, a person who is more serious in life and a more likely life partner.

The story is an allegory, from what I've read. I guess I didn't think all that deeply about it. On the surface the story is a love triangle. It is also a story about a young woman coming into her own as an independent woman who knows her own mind. Regardless, I liked the story and the movie.

Book Rating: 5 stars

Cedar Cove Series

I confess, I read the entire Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber. I read the first couple of books in the series before I started watching the Hallmark series. I then watched the series and later caught up with the rest of the stories. The tv version was canceled after two seasons and starred Andie McDowell and Dylan Neal. The tv version deviates from the original source material in the story lines, though the character names are the same.

Each book in the series in an address in the small town of Cedar Cove. Olivia Lockhart is a judge and often oversees the towns squabbles much in the same way Andy Taylor did in Mayberry. Jack Griffin is the recently sober journalist trying to rebuild his life after taking over the town's newspaper. Jack becomes the love interest of Olivia. There is a whole cast of characters that show up in the books. Each story focus on a different character with the others weaving in and out of the stories. This story writing style is similar to Macomber's Blossom Street series.

I liked the series for the most part. Macomber is a bit of a guilty pleasure because her stories have a bit of romance without being trashy and interesting characters.

16 Lighthouse Road - introduces many of the characters who show up in later stories. Focuses on Olivia Lockhart and Jack Griffin. Disappearance of Grace's husband Dan.

204 Rosewood Lane - lots of characters and sub plots to keep track of. Story ends on a cliff hanger. Resolution on Grace's husband who disappears.

311 Pelican Court - Rosie and Zach's divorce is finalized and kids get to keep the house. All kinds of fallout from that. Maryellen has her baby and her relationship with Jon Bowman grows. Grace almost makes a serious mistake. Big changes for Olivia and Jack. A bit of mystery surrounding a man who dies at the Thyme and tide.

44 Cranberry Point - the murder at the Thyme and Tide is solved. Grace's relationship with Cliff is rekindled. Olivia and Jack have newlywed problems. The story drags.

50 Harbor Street - Roy the private investigator gets mysterious postcards questioning his past. Grace and Cliff's relationship is back on, and Cliff's assistant, Cal, falls for Linette.

6 Ranier Drive - Justine and Seth lose their restaurant and have to figure out a new future. Cal heads off Montana.

74 Seaside Avenue - Teri Miller who works at the nail salon worries her husband is hiding something. Also her friend Rachel has two love interests.

8 Sandpiper Way - Emily is afraid her husband Dave, the local pastor, is having an affair. Also the sheriff's long lost love moves back to town.

92 Pacific Boulevard - Troy, the sheriff, and Faith break up. Olivia is going through chemo.

1022 Evergreen Place - Mary Jo is in love but worries her ex may sue for custody of their daughter.

1105 Yakima Street - Bruce Peyton's wife is missing, his daughter is giving him trouble, and Olivia's mother is becoming more forgetful.

1225 Christmas Lane - my least favorite book of the series and also the shortest. Nearly everyone is having a disagreement with someone else. One character tries to place homeless puppies and also resolve a marriage conflict. This story focuses on an extremely minor character from the previous books and very few of the other characters show up.

Starting Now

I read Starting Now by Debbie Macomber three years ago and I can't remember much of the story. Lydia is a recently laid off lawyer and she is trying to figure her life out. She ends up on Blossom Street and forms a friendship with the shop owner. She also meets a doctor and begins a relationship.

Not being able to remember the story is probably true for many of Debbie Macomber's stories. I have read most of the Blossom Street series and only a few of the stories stand out in my memory and one in particular affected me. But many of Debbie Macomber's stories are fluffy romances and this story is apparently one of them. At the time I read this, it filled a need for a light read.

Book Rating: 3 stars because the story was forgettable.

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Suzanne's diary for Nicholas

Katie Wilkinson thinks she may have found the perfect man. But he is distant and reluctant to take their relationship very far. He leaves her a journal written by his wife for their son Nicholas. Katie reads about Suzanne's romance, hope for her marriage and her son. Will Katie be able to bridge the grief and loss of her new love?

This is one of those books that I read after watching the movie. I liked the movie well enough but expected the book to be better. In reality, the two are fairly similar. I read the book a while ago and I can't remember there being any large differences between the two.

I think this book is a bit unusual because James Patterson has written only a few romances. He does ok with this story, though it does get a bit sentimental. Some aspects of the story feel a bit contrived. As the story unfolds, you can understand why Suzanne's husband is reluctant to enter a new relationship after so much loss. But to have the story told by a third party to the potentially new girlfriend seems a bit manipulative for the reader.

I enjoyed the story enough to finish it, but it is a bit over wrought.

Book Rating: 4 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

River of time series

Confession time.  I devoured a young adult romance series in about a week. Well, at least the first three books in the series. The River of Time series is written by Lisa T. Bergren, which includes Waterfall (book 1), Cascade (book 2), and Torrent (book 3). The author has since added Bourne and Tributary (book 4) and DELUGE (book 5). I have not yet read Deluge because I did not know about it till now. It is going on my to-read list now!

So what is it about? In Waterfall, Gabi and Lia are sisters stuck at an archeological dig over the summer with their mother. Gabi decides to explore a part of the dig in a cave and places her hand a top a hand print on the cave wall. Suddenly she finds herself in 14th century Italy complete with warring knights and castles. Lia somehow is transported back in time but is separated from Gabi. Gabi and Lia must find a way home to their own time, but adventure and love are in the past.

In Cascade, Gabi, Lia, and their mother return again to the past only to discover that months have passed since they last left. In that time tensions between the Florentines and Sienese have reached a breaking point and war is on the horizon. Gabi and Lia, both known as "she-wolves", rise to the occasion to help win the battle. Meanwhile Gabi falls more deeply in love with Marcello and must make a decision about whether to stay.

In Torrent, the girls decide to save their father from an untimely demise and bring him into the past. Meanwhile, there is more adventure and romance for Gabi and Marcello. Gabi must make the decision whether to marry Marcello or not. Can she forever give up the future? There are lots of twists and turns in the story and it moves pretty fast. And yes, Lia also finds some romance. This was supposed to be the final book of a trilogy, but the author has added two more books.

Bourne and Tributary are two novellas the author added to help tie up loose ends. Parts of Bourne are told from Lia's point of view and the rest by Gabi. We get to see Lia and Luca come closer together. In Tributary, we get Lia and Luca's point of view. Lia, who is younger than Gabi, also must deal with all the experiences she has had that would traumatize anyone. Both stories have more action and adventure.

If you can ignore the silly time traveling device and the fact that Gabi and Lia seem to be able to understand medieval Italian, the stories are very good. There is just the right mix of adventure, medieval warfare, and romance (nothing too naughty here because it is classified as a teen Christian romance). I would finish one book, close the cover and state, "I need the next book now!" I would call these books a guilty pleasure.

Book Rating: 5 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Blossom Street series

Debbie Macomber's book are my go-to books for light, fluffy reading. I turned to these books over a year ago when I wanted escapist fiction with mostly happy endings mixed with romance.

The series starts with The Shop on Blossom Street. Lydia opens a yarn shop, a lifetime goal after surviving cancer - twice. Little does she expect to find friends among her customers. Each of the characters that attend Lydia's first knitting class are almost predictable in their characterizations. There is the hard-edge, streetwise girl that is doing probation, the infertile woman who wants a baby, the retiree, etc. That alone put me off reading the others in the series for a long time, though to be fair this first book was more successful than other books with a similar concept. Despite the shortcomings of the first story, it was worth going back to Blossom Street to read the rest. The first book came out at the same time that knitting and yarn shops were surging in popularity. Debbie Macomber later came out with a companion series of knitting patterns inspired by the series.



Each story in the series shifts to different characters that are connected to Blossom Street. This is a great way to build a series so that readers do not get bored by reading about the same characters every time. Instead, the reader gets updates on characters from the first book in later books, and occasionally they return as major characters in a new story. My favorite books in the series are Susannah's garden and Twenty Wishes for various reasons. Twenty Wishes was almost inspiring in how the women achieved lifetime goals by writing down their wishes. Their individual journeys was written well. My least favorite story is A Turn in the Road. In this story the major character tries to choose which of two men she should date - her ex-husband or a biker she meets on a road trip. The debate turns annoying when every other paragraph the character can't make up her mind, yet again. This story is a revisit of a character from an earlier book, in which the woman goes through a devastating divorce only to discover a hidden talent and self-worth. A Turn in the Road makes her appear very weak and stupid, which is a disappointment after her recently discovered self.

Debbie Macomber is still adding to this series. There are two more books I haven't read and will review later. I also want to tackle the Cedar Cove series, which is being made in a Hallmark TV series.

Series Ratings: 4 stars, skip A Turn in the Road

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.