Back on Blossom Street
by Debbie Macomber
Published by Mira (May release)
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Reviewed by Patty Inglish, MS
Back on Blossom Street contains another trio of women looking for answers. They are three courageous and very different individuals that become fast friends while helping one another excavate the keys to life's challenges amid their daily turmoil. They do this with help from Lydia's delightful shop, A Good Yarn, and a new floral shop next door, Susannah's Garden (also a Macomber book). Susannah herself joins the cast.
These brilliantly portrayed women bring their lives to Lydia's knitting classes and divulge themselves by small measures in a place they will embrace as a sanctuary. This story is of Alix, Lydia, and the mysterious widow Collette, but includes other circles of three as well. They are all intertwined around the first three, their stories blooming up and down Blossom Street.
I could hear foghorns in the harbor and see that portion of downtown Seattle with its shops and grocer's stalls. With an apartment above the yarn shop, books and flowers next door, and a friend's bakery across the street, why did Lydia move? That is another good yarn.
Life's greatest sunshine and darkest skies are shared deep inside A Good Yarn, around a heavy wooden table where knitters click needles, tell stories, and support one another away from the city. This reminds me of the Star Trek(tm) The Captain's Table series wherein weary starship captains discover a door not always apparent in the fog. When they enter, they can tell their stories to appreciative comrades in arms.
Lydia's table is the descendant of the quilting bee and the knitter's improvement on the support group, but women around this table are more effective than therapy.
This installment of the Blossom Street knitters challenges women with outrageous wedding plans, mental illness, a carjacking, illegal immigration, babies, loss, and wonder. It also contains the best-portrayed senior woman I have seen in some while. Noting Alix's use of the AA term "stinkin' thinkin'," I await more novels in this series, perhaps dealing with her youth ministry and the plague and redemption from drugs and alcohol.
Recommends for teens and adults who like Seattle, friendship, and meeting life events with a can-do attitude.
Armchair Interviews says: We hope there will be at least a dozen more in this series.
Author's Web site: http://www.debbiemacomber.com