Back on Blossom Street

From Publishers Weekly Women who share a love of knitting support each other through the vicissitudes of life in Macomber's unsurprising third novel set on Seattle's fictional Blossom Street. Lydia Goetz, the proprietor of the knitting store (and series anchor) A Good Yarn, has begun teaching a new knitting class on prayer shawls. Fellow knitters include Colette Blake, a 31-year-old widow who rents the apartment above the shop and whose grief over her dead husband is being supplemented by confusion about her relationship with former boss and possible criminal Christian Dempsey. Also casting on is Alix Townsend, the daughter of a family of miscreants and now engaged to the Rev. Jordan Turner and so stressed over wedding planning that she wonders if she's pastor's wife material. Closer to home, Lydia's niece Julia is the victim of a carjacking and an ineffectual justice system, and Lydia is feeling bereft because, thanks to her history of cancer, she may never give birth to her own child. Readers will get exactly what they expect: a litany of feel-good, unassailable instances of the benefits of friendship, tolerance and knitting; happy endings for all; and simple if saccharine prose. Readers who already cherish life à la Blossom Street will welcome this slight variation on the theme. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Macomber's latest Blossom Street tale begins with a new knitting class at the shop Lydia Goetz owns in downtown Seattle. Lydia's business is doing well, and in attendance are Susannah, who runs the flower shop next door; Colette, a young widow who lives upstairs; and Alix Townsend, a baker and former hoodlum engaged to a future minister. Lydia always tries to encourage friendship among her pupils, but this group is none too warm. Colette's reticence is attributed to grief, but she is actually in hiding. Alix is trying her best to please her future in-laws, but as the wedding draws near, worries mount. These involving stories along with Macomber's familiar characters continue the Blossom Street themes of friendship and personal growth that readers find so moving. Maria Hatton Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved 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 begun 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 their own. Margaret's daughter, Julia, has been 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 problem ... and that another woman can usually help you find it! 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 an assistant named Colette Blake, a young widow who's obviously hiding a secret--or two.When Susannah and Colette both join Lydia Goetz's new knitting class, they discover that Lydia and her sister, Margaret, have worries of their 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, whose wedding is only months away. She's not sure she can go through with it, though. A reception at the country club, with hundreds of guests she's never met--it's just not Alix. But, like everyone else in Lydia's knitting class, she knows there's a solution to every problem...and that another woman can usually help you find it!