BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET

Author: Debbie Macomber ISBN: 0778324516 5/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MIRA

There's a new shop on Seattle's Blossom Street—a flower store called Susannah's Garden, right next door to A Good Yarn. Susannah Nelson, the owner, has just hired a young widow named Colette Blake. A couple of months earlier, Colette had abruptly quit her previous job—after a brief affair with her boss. To her dismay, he's suddenly be gun placing weekly orders for flower arrangements! Susannah and Colette both join Lydia Goetz's new knitting class. Lydia's previous classes have forged lasting friendships, and this one is no exception. But Lydia and her sister, Margaret, have worries of her own. Margaret's daughter, Julia, is the victim of a random carjacking, and the entire family is thrown into emotional chaos. Then there's Alix Townsend. Her wedding to Jordan Turner is only months away—but she's not sure she can go through with it. Her love for Jordan isn't in question; what she can't handle is the whole wedding extravaganza engineered by her mentor, Jacqueline, with the enthusiastic cooperation of her future mother-in-law. A reception at the country club and hundreds of guests she's never even met—it's just not Alix. Like everyone else in Lydia's knitting class, Alix knows there's a solution to every a problem...and that another woman can usually help you find it!

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET was just what the doctor ordered, a lovely book to lose myself in on a summer afternoon. The SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET started what is now officially a series, and we are treated here to the continuing story of knitting shop owner Lydia Goetz and her family's life, as well as the experiences of those in her latest knitting class.

This time, the class is going to be knitting prayer shawls and there isn't much of a turnout. Alix Townsend is back, trying to cope with the stress of her upcoming wedding, and Susannah and new character Colette, from the local flower shop, have joined too.

While Macomber has to throw bad things at her characters to get the plot in motion, nothing feels contrived as we see how these women cope with what hand has been dealt to them. Macomber knows what issues are facing women in different stages of their lives. Some of the topics here are the first bad thing that happens to a girl, the difficult choices around weddings that are so not just about the two people getting married, infertility, unplanned pregnancies and taking care of aging parents.

Somehow, though, it's all handled with such a light touch and dose of faith, that you never feel weighed down as a reader but are uplifted, instead. I eagerly await the next installment!

Heather Hiestand