204 Rosewood Lane (Cedar Cove Series #2) Book

The above map was taken from Debbie Macomber's web site and can be seen better at this hyperlink: Cedar Cove Map PDF. Warning: Don't study the red legend too carefully, there are spoilers there. In fact, maybe I should just tell you a few locations critical to the story. ➀ is Olivia Lockhart's house. ➁ is Grace Sherman's house. ➂ is the home of Zack and Rosie Cox, and ➃ is the bed and breakfast/home of Peggy and Bob Beldon. If you just click on the pic instead of the hyperlink, it should take you to a larger pic where the legend is still too blurry to read.

This is a review of the audio version of this book. The narrator, Sandra Burr, again does a wonderful job of bringing Ms. Macomber's characters of Cedar Cove to life in this second book of the series. Sometimes it is difficult for a female to do the male voices, but Ms. Burr is great, putting a different inflection on each voice in a nice way and adding a touch of subtle humorous tone in the appropriate scenes.

There are various storylines in the book and a few of them are unresolved at the end; it is a small-town-life-romance-chick-lit-soap series, after all! Nevertheless, the good news is that librarian Grace Sherman gets answers to her husband of thirty-five years, Dan's, disappearance that had us wondering in 16 Lighthouse Road. Grace has her new golden-retriever, sweet little "Buttercup" (isn't that a Gilbert and Sullivan song?), and interested Cliff Harding to help her through it all.

We are updated on Justine and Seth Gunderson's marriage weeks after their elopement, as well as on her grandmother, Charlotte.

The skittish divorcée, Maryellen Sherman, an art gallery manager and Grace's oldest daughter, has a love interest in Joe Bowman, a chef by vocation and photographer by avocation. Oh what a tangled web we weave…and that's all I'm going to say on that.

Judge Olivia Lockhart and newspaper reporter, Jack Griffin, are discovering their feelings for one another and their relationship. Both are worrying over the same thing - about not being with each other enough; however, they both have so much on their crowded plates. And they are about to get even more crowded when Jack's previously estranged son, Eric, stops by…for how long? And how about Olivia's ex, Stan?

Then there is Zack and Rosie Cox, accountant and stay-at-home-mom respectively; married seventeen years, they are stumbling toward a split. Their arguments and disagreements are doozies, as both parties have valid points. Ms. Macomber does a wonderful job of conveying how an argument can spiral out of control. I had to wonder if DM is going to be a bit cliché here and lead us down the "neglected man" path - comforted by the ever efficient office assistant. I do like the author's comment on the fact that once couples become financially secure, they can drift apart - pulled by varying interest and demands - and lose that sense of being partners against the world.

There is plenty of life going on in this little town: babies, secrets, arguments and romance. Some of it will have to be resolved in 311 Pelican Court. I'm ready for a listen!