Summer on Blossom Street

Title: Summer on Blossom Street

Author: Debbie Macomber

Date Finished: July 7, 2010

Personal Book Count: 34 out of 100

Rating: 3 out of 5

Genre/ Subject: fiction, knitting

First Line: Wednesday morning, a not-so-perfect June day, I turned over the open sign at my yarn store on Blossom Street.

Why did I pick this book?: I have read most of the series… I think I am short one now…

Summary and Review: summary taken from the authors website-

“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.

First to join is Phoebe Rylander. She recently ended her engagement to a man who doesn’t know the meaning of faithful, and she’s trying to get over him. Then there’s Alix Turner. She and her husband, Jordan, want a baby, which means she has to quit smoking. And Bryan Hutchinson joins the class because he needs a way to deal with the stress of running his family’s business—not to mention the lawsuit brought against him by an unscrupulous lawyer.”

This is an oddly familiar, comfortable read. I like the way this author mixes new and old characters in this series. We always get to continue with the thread of the old, but it stays fresh with the incorporation of new. For example, Lydia has grown through the series, dating, marrying, having a family, ect. Some authors can write 30 books, and the character is the same in the first and the last. (I’m sure this is called something, I just don’t know what). I like that Macomber can advance the story through many books, but I never feel lost. Then there is another character named Alix. Alix is progressing, but I’m not sure it’s for the better. In this novel I just found her whiny, and thought she was there for padding for other story lines. So I guess I am ambivalent on the way this worked this time around. The novels themselves are based in a community that comes across comfortable and friendly, and you just want to step into the pages and have a cup of coffee or sit and knit a while. Now, these novels are somewhat formulaic in that it is always a group of characters that come together for a knitting class, and then help each other work out there problems by the end. But it is always a complete ending, and a nice place to visit.

Agree? Disagree? Recommendations? Any insights, suggestions, or comments on the book or format, or blog at all are most welcome. If you have read this and/ or review it yourself, please let me know. Can you think of any books like this? Give me a recommendation! =D