A GOOD YARN

Author: Debbie Macomber ISBN: 0778321444 5/2005 CONTEMPROARY Publisher: MIRA

Whether this is a return visit or your very first, you'll find A Good Yarn is a place of welcome and warmth. A place where women feel at home. Where they're among friends, old and new. The first person you'll meet is Lydia Hoffman, who owns the shop. In the year since it opened, A Good Yarn has thrived—and so has Lydia. A lot of that is due to Brad Goetz. But when Brad's ex-wife reappears, Lydia is suddenly afraid to trust her newfound happiness. Elise Beaumont, a retired librarian, joins one of Lydia's popular knitting classes. Since losing her life savings, Elise has been living with her daughter, Aurora—the only positive legacy from her brief marriage to professional gambler Marvin "Maverick" Beaumont. Now she learns that her onetime husband plans to visit and that Aurora wants a relationship with her father, regardless of how Elise feels about him. Bethanne Hamlin, like Elise, is facing the fallout from a divorce. But her husband, Grant, left her for another woman—not a pack of cards—and she's still struggling to reshape her life. She joins the knitting class at her children's urging; it's the first step in her effort to recover a sense of dignity and hope. Then she starts a small business and meets a man with whom she has something surprising in common! Courtney Pulanski is a depressed and overweight teenager. She's staying with her grandmother, who's trying to help her...help that takes the form of dragging her to seniors' swim sessionsand to the knitting class at A Good Yarn. Like so many women, these four find companionship and comfort in each other and in this age-old craft. Who would've thought that knitting socks could change your life?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

A GOOD YARN is a sequel of sorts to THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET. You need not read the first book to thoroughly enjoy the second. Some of the characters are the same, some are different, but Debbie Macomber provides enough background information to fill in any gaps.

A GOOD YARN is the story of four women who develop an unlikely friendship through their love of knitting. These four distinct women appear to have nothing in common. They are from different generations and have remarkably dissimilar personalities. Yet their love of knitting enables them to find companionship with one another.

Lydia Hoffman is the owner of A Good Yarn, a knitting store she opened a year ago. As a teenager and young adult, Lydia survived two bouts of cancer only to lose her father in the process. Now she is cancer free and in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Brad. Brad has a son, Cody, from his first marriage. Cody adores Lydia as much as Brad does and wants Lydia to be his mom. Lydia is finally living the life she always dreamed of, until Brad’s ex-wife threatens to change all that.

Elsie Beaumont has good reasons to be bitter. She was married to the love of her life only to find out he was a professional gambler, who stayed in one city long enough to win or lose money. After their daughter was born, Maverick and Elsie Beaumont divorced. That was thirty-seven years ago. Elsie still harbors resentment and animosity towards her ex-husband which she shares with her daughter every time his name is mentioned.

Elsie, a retired librarian, lost all of her life-savings in a bad development deal. She has been forced to move in with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons. Elsie hopes this is a temporary living arrangement. Especially since her daughter informed her that Maverick is coming to stay with them for two whole weeks. How will Elsie survive living across the hall from a man she once loved?

Bethanne Hamlin is a divorced mother of two teenagers; Annie and Andrew. Bethanne’s husband, Grant, left her after twenty-some years of marriage for a younger woman. Her divorce has robbed her of the man she thought she loved, her identity and her confidence.

Bethanne has been a wife and stay-at-home-mother ever since her seventeen year old son was born. Now she needs to reinvent herself and become employed so she can keep her home. So Bethanne starts her own small business with the help of her new friends, family and a man who has fallen in love with her.

Courtney Pulanski will be a senior in high school. This should be the happiest time in her life. It would be except she has been forced to spend her senior year with her grandmother far away from her friends and family. Now Courtney has to start over. She has to make new friends and try to find her niche in a new school. To make matters worse, Courtney is overweight and depressed. How will Courtney lose weight and make friends before the beginning of the school year?

This is my first Debbie Macomber book and I am now a fan.A GOOD YARN was a pleasure to read. It has an interesting, complex plot that makes the book a real page-turner. The book is character narrated which provides the reader with four divergent perspectives on women and the problems they face. This book was an easy read, but thought provoking. A GOOD YARN is a good way to wind down after a mind-numbing day.