by Debbie Macomber

Oh my. Debbie Macomber is certainly a very careful writer. She writes like she is a teacher trying to explain something to a class. Oh so patient, so organized, so so didactic. Yet, she is very easy to read and I finished this book in half a day. The romance was blah and kind of saccharine and predictable. Skipped through most of the formulaic stuff between the heroine and her love interest. But the interaction between the 3 sisters was very realistic and interesting. The happenings to the sisters were actually more engaging and wished for a bit more with the youngest sister. Would have loved to see the final (?) confrontation between her and her husband, Instead of just a footnote of “Oh yeah, and this happened.” Debbie used to be a favorite writer on mine back when she was writing Silhouette Special Editions. Her Navy and other series were examples of some of the best romance being written at that time and still stacks up today. Category romances such as Harlequin, Silhouette, and Candelight Ecstasy, launched some of the most successful authors published, many of which spent time on the New York Times best seller lists: Jennifer Crusie, Iris Johannson, Nora Roberts, Tess Gerrittsen, Sandra Brown, Rosamunde Pilcher, Linda Howard, Jayne Ann Krentz, I could go on and on. Debbie Macomber was one of the first to break out and be published by a “mainstream” publisher. I lost interest in her books quite some time ago. I felt like her writing and plotting has gotten stale and tired. I thought I’d give her another try. Unfortunately, it was a failed experiment.

March 18, 2015