Karen's Book Nook

Cross posted from my main blog…

Good things come in threes... (Or is it just Bad things come in threes?)  Anyway…  I’m going to be optimistic that it’s good things too!

On Friday, I got a Facebook message from a fellow teacher and organizer of our district’s 25 Week Club Scholarship Dinner that I had won $100 in the final drawing!  Sounds great to me!!

This morning, I opened my email and saw that I won  the grand prize drawing on RedLady’s blog for some Debbie Macomber books and a $25 Visa card sponsored by Big Honcho Media.

Now… I lost my new glasses some time this week when I put them in the case and took them with me when I went out with Al to run some errands. I’ve called every place we’ve been, torn my house upside down, (including under couch cushions), and Tweeted a prayer to St. Anthony for help.

I would love, love, love to have the third thing be to find my glasses… but, since the four of us are heading to Twin River tomorrow afternoon for some family fun after our Mother’s Day meal at Faial, hitting big on the slots wouldn’t be too hard to take either….

Now that I’m walking again, I’ve been plugging in and just finished Book 7 in Debbie Macomber‘s Cedar Cove Series,  74 Seaside Avenue.

About the book: I’m living a life I couldn’t even have dreamed of a few years ago. I’m married to Bobby Polgar now (you know, the famous chess champion who just happens to be the man I love!). And we’ve got this beautiful house with a view of Puget Sound.

Lately something’s been worrying Bobby, though. When I asked, he said he was “protecting his queen” — and I got the oddest feeling he wasn’t talking about chess but about me. He wouldn’t say anything else.

Do you remember Get Nailed, the beauty salon in Cedar Cove? I still work there. I’ll tell you about my friend Rachel, who’s got two men interested in her (count ‘em, two). And I’ll let you in on what I’ve heard about Linnette McAfee, who left town when her love life fell apart. (That kind of trouble I know all about.) Come in soon for a manicure and a chat, okay?  — Teri (Miller) Polga  More Here!

My thoughts: As always, Debbie Macomber is a go to author when I need a light, feel good book.  I’m enjoying getting to know more characters as the series is continuing. I read it really quickly while walking and doing a  few things around the house. Gotta love audio books!

Rating 3.5/5

Counts towards: Library Challenge, 100 Book Challenge, Audio Book Challenge, Finish that Series Challenge

I finally got plugged back in and finished the next book in the Cedar Cove series,  6 Rainier Drive , by Debbie Macomber.

About the book:
After losing The Lighthouse restaurant to arson, Justine and Seth Gunderson’s marriage is rocky. The prime suspect, Anson Butler, is a young ex-employee who disappeared right after the fire. But when a cross necklace shows up in the ashes of the restaurant, authorities wonder if someone else set the fire. Seth assumes they will rebuild, but Justine likes not having to worry about the restaurant. It’s as if they don’t know each other anymore. But could something unexpected rekindle their love, say in nine months? Still, there’s good news in Cedar Cove. Cal, who works on Cliff Harding’s ranch, is rescuing wild mustangs from Wyoming but might find he’s better suited for other adventures. And a Victorian Tea Room and Gift Shop could be in the works. In the meantime, life goes on, with marriages, births, reunions…and even the occasional scandal. More here.

Rating 3.5/5

As always, I’m always ready for the next in the Cedar Cove series and read the fifth one,  50 Harbor Street by Debbie Macomber via audio book.

About the book: Roy McAfee, Cedar Cove’s resident private investigator, and his wife, Corrie, have been receiving anonymous postcards and messages, asking if they regret the past, and what they mean is a mystery to them! On a more positive note, Roy and Corrie are delighted that their daughter, Linette, has moved back to Cedar Cove to work at the new medical clinic. Linette isn’t too enthusiastic that her mom has set her up with Cal Washburn, who works at Cliff Harding’s horse farm. Corrie bought Linette a date with Cal at the humane society’s “Dog and Bachelor Auction.” The romance between Cliff and Grace Sherman is back, but that’s just one of the many interesting stories you’ll read about in 50 Harbor Street. More here.

My thoughts: I’m really enjoying this series and the characters are like old friends. I’m so glad that I’m reading it in order because of the relationships of the characters. I don’t think I would enjoy it as much if I didn’t because the characters’ stories carry through from book to book.  As all of her books are,  Cedar Cove novels are rated PG.

Rating 3.5/5

Counts towards: Library Challenge, 100 Book Challenge, Audio Book Challenge, Finish that Series Challenge,

I’ve been waiting for 44 Cranberry Point to come in for weeks and it finally was available. It was the next book in Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove series.  I listened via audio book.

About the book:

Judge Olivia and her husband, Jack, are back from their honeymoon to find her mother, Charlotte, who’s at least seventy-five, has a man in her life. But the big buzz is about the man who died in the Beldon’s bed and breakfast. Turns out, his name was Max Russell, and Bob knew him briefly in Vietnam. But who poisoned him and why?

In happier news, Jon Bowman and Maryellen Sherman have seen the light—they’re getting married. Maryellen’s mom, Grace, has more than her share of interested men, but which one will she choose? All grist for the gossip mill in Cedar Cove, the town you’d love to call home. More here!

My thoughts: The more I read the series, the more the characters seem like old friends. I always look forward to the next installment and usually listen via audio book. I like that the reader has been consistent thus far so my schema for characters and voices has remained constant. I look forward to the next one which I’m jumping right into.

Rating 3.5/5

Counts towards: Library Challenge, 100 Book Challenge, Audio Book Challenge, Finish that Series Challenge,

Making my way through the Cedar Cove series, 311 Pelican Court by Debbie Macomber was my first book completed in 2010.

About the book:

311 Pelican Court
Book Three
September 2003

Now divorced, Zach and Rosie Cox are struggling to adjust to Judge Olivia’s unusual custody agreement—and to the fact they’re thrown together more than they would have wished. The kids are staying in the family home, and it’s Rosie and Zach who have to do the coming and going. Having discovered the tragic fate of her husband, Grace tries to adjust to single living and to the attentions of another man.

But the really big gossip comes when a guest dies at Bob and Peggy Beldon’s Thyme and Tide Bed and Breakfast. Roy McAfee, the local private investigator, wants to know who the guy was, and why he showed up there, of all places, in the middle of the night. More here.

My thoughts: Once again, I listened to this book on my mp3 player and downloaded it from my library.  I’m really getting a warm, comfy feeling reading this series. I like the way each book thus far has mainly focused on the resident at the address in the title but there are multiple stories woven in and throughout. Naturally, Macomber’s books are very tame and easy reads but I’m hooked! I’m really looking forward to the entire series.

Rating 3.5/5

Counts towards: Library Challenge, 100 Book Challenge, Audio Book Challenge, Finish that Series Challenge

I’m starting to really get hooked on the Cedar Cove series here!  204 Rosewood Lane is the 2nd book in the series by Debbie Macomber.

About the Book: Six months after her husband of 35 years, Dan, disappeared, Grace Sherman is confident he’s run off with another woman, so, against her daughter, Kelly’s wishes, she files for divorce. Meanwhile, Judge Olivia has love problems of her own. Her ex-husband wants her back, giving her on-again, off-again suitor, Jack Griffin, some stiff competition. Jack has other problems. His son, Eric, comes home to bunk with dad, on the outs with his girlfriend, Shelly, who thinks she’s pregnant. Olivia’s daughter, Justine, wises up and marries her high school sweetheart, but Zach and Rosie Cox find their marriage on the skids when Rosie’s volunteer work takes precedence over her family responsibilities. Maryellen Sherman, Grace’s older daughter and manager of the local art gallery, becomes pregnant after a brief affair with artist Jon Bowman. Romance, babies, divorce and marriage keep Cedar Cove gossips buzzing.  More here.

My thoughts:  While Debbie’s writing is very tame and predictable, I enjoy her work for a feel good series. It’s light reading that I can do via audio book while getting other things done.  I like the way she carries the characters’ stories through from book to book and it makes me want to continue on to see how certain things unfold for them.  I’m starting the 3rd book right away since it’s available for download now. There are plenty of books in this series so it should keep me satisfied for awhile.

Rating 3.5/5

Since I discovered Debbie Macomber and read all of the Blossom Street series (I wanted to start with a small one..),  I am now beginning one of her bigger ones, Cedar Cove. I’m starting with the first book,   16 Lighthouse Road.

About the book:

16 Lighthouse Road
Book One
September 2001

When Cecilia Randall, and her naval officer husband, Ian, appear in Judge Olivia Lockhart’s Cedar Cove family court, they expect the good judge to grant the divorce they seek. But Olivia senses the couple still love one another and just need time to work on their marriage in the wake of their infant daughter’s death. So Olivia denies their petition and makes headlines in the Cedar Cove Chronicle, earning the divorced mother more than journalistic admiration from the paper’s editor, Jack Griffin. Meanwhile, Olivia’s daughter, Justine, must decide if she will marry an older man her mother insists is wrong for her, and Olivia’s best friend, Grace Sherman, the local librarian, is frantic with the disappearance of her husband, Dan. Everyone in Cedar Cove is talking!  More here.

My thoughts:  This was a typical happy ending Debbie Macomber book.  I found it a bit unreal at the beginning when the judge injected personal feelings into her divorce ruling but hey… this is fiction and feel-good, fiction Debbie Macomber style to boot.  This is the first of the Cedar Cove series. I’ve completed the Blossom Street series and moved on to this one. Being anal as I am, I need to read them in order. I’m assuming that I’ll be seeing many of the same characters in the future as I make my way through.

Rating 3/5

Starting my 3rd book in the Holiday Reading Challenge,  Christmas Letters by Debbie Macomber. It takes place on Blossom Street but I don’t think it’s about any of the same characters that were in the rest of the series that I’ve met thus far.

About the book:Katherine O’Connor often spends her days at a cozy café on Blossom Street in Seattle–where she writes Christmas letters for other people. She’s good at making their everyday lives sound more interesting. More humorous. More dramatic.

But for Dr. Wynn Jeffries, who also frequents the café, Christmas means lies and deception. In fact, the renowned child psychologist recommends that parents “bury Santa under the sleigh.” Katherine, however, feels that his parenting philosophy is one big mistake–at least, based on her five-year-old twin nieces, who are being raised according to his “Free Child” methods.

My thoughts: This was a typical Debbie Macomber tame read. Hers are always happy ending, feel good, predictable reads and this was no different. I chose it because I’m making my way through all of her series. As in most romances of this sort, the characters initially don’t hit it off then you know what happens in the end. Even though hers are sweet, rated G reads, I still like her style for a feel good, curl up with some tea in front of the fire read.  I also like it when authors reference in “old friends” from the neighborhood even if it’s just in passing. It always makes me smile and feel that I’m in on something.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Starting the final audio book in Debbie Macomber‘s Blossom Street Series, Summer on Blossom Street while I knit. This one is read by the famous Delilah.. I should really enjoy it since I love her voice and it focuses on Lydia from the first two books.

About the book: Knitting and life. They’re both about beginnings—and endings. That’s why it makes sense for Lydia Goetz, owner of A Good Yarn on Seattle’s Blossom Street, to offer a class called Knit to Quit. It’s for people who want to quit something—or someone!—and start a new phase of their lives….  More here.

Finally got the 3rd Barbara Holloway novel, Malice Prepense in  the series by Kate Wilhelm.  I read the first two in audio format but this third wasn’t available so I’m reading the paper version… it will likely take me awhile to finish but there are lots of books in the series that I want to get to.

About the book:  For the Defense: or, Malice Prepense
Teddy Wendover is a hulking twenty-eight-year-old with the mind of a child. An accident at eight left him severely retarded. But did it turn him into a cold-blooded killer? Someone has bludgeoned Congressman Harry Knecht to death. Knecht was the man who organized the field trip that led to Teddy’s injury.
Also started and finished Janet Evanovich’s Two for the Dough… the second in the Stephanie Plum series.

About the book:

It’s Stephanie Plum, New Jersey’s “fugitive apprehension” agent (aka bounty hunter), introduced to the world by Janet Evanovich in the award-winning novel One for the Money.

Now Stephanie’s back, armed with attitude — not to mention stun guns, defense sprays, killer flashlights, and her trusty .38. Stephanie is after a new bail jumper, Kenny Mancuso, a boy from Trenton’s burg. He’s fresh out of the army, suspiciously wealthy, and he’s just shot his best friend….  More Here.