Thursday, January 15, 2009

16 Lighthouse Road - Debbie Macomber


I have been hoping to read "16 Lighthouse Road", the first book in the Cedar Cove series written by my favourite writer Debbie Macomber since i read of it in: http://bookfan-mary.blogspot.com/2008/09/8-sandpiper-way-continues-saga-of-cedar.html
The Cedar Cove series is set on a charming small town near Seattle and is a fictional town but loosely based on the writer's hometown of Port Orchard, Washington. I finally got my copy of the book last week after reserving it from the library and finished reading it today while enjoying a nice cup of iced coffee at the newly opened Starbucks in Sembawang Shopping Centre. I have been looking forward to the opening of the cafe as it is sometimes hard to get seats at Coffeebean in Sun Plaza.






Debbie Macomber's novels are so addictive and "16 Lighthouse Road" is no exception and i highly recommend this book to fellow book lovers. I really enjoyed reading the stories of all the characters in the book especially Ian and Cecilia's story and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series as i hope to find out what happened to Grace's husband Dan. I'm now waiting for the second and third book in the series "204 Rosewood Lane" and "311 Pelican Court" which i have reserved a week ago from the library. I hope to read according to the sequence of the series but i might have to read the 5th book "50 Harbor Street" first while waiting for the other 2 books. The library also does not have the 4th book "44 Cranberry Point" and i might have to purchase the book. You can find out the sequence of the books for this series at the writer's website: http://www.debbiemacomber.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=books&pageID=2


16 Lighthouse Road is actually five stories intertwined with Olivia Lockhart as the link to the other stories. The story starts off with Olivia as a family court judge who hears yet another divorce petition in Cedar Cove, Washington. This one, however, is different. The couple had filed a prenuptial agreement making a divorce difficult and Olivia has the feeling that this couple isn’t really ready to split up. So she refuses the petition. Cecilia and Ian Randall, the young couple who request the divorce, have plenty of problems in their marriage - Ian is in the Navy and gone for long periods of time where he can’t contact his wife. Cecilia had given birth prematurely and had to deal with the death of their baby daughter alone. She blames Ian for not being there for her and the couple had decided on a divorce as a way out of their marital problems and to avoid facing the guilt of their daughter's death.


There are also stories of other characters related to Olivia, like her family, friends and neighbours. Her estranged daughter, Justine, has to learn to have the courage to love and trust again since the death of her brother and allow herself to love someone who won’t be a comfortable choice. Olivia finds new love in a new man, Jack Griffin, the editor of her local paper years after the failure of her marriage. Olivia’s mother, Charlotte, also has to fight to make her dead friend’s last request meaningful to his remaining family. Olivia’s good friend, Grace, has to face the disappearance of not only her marriage but also her husband of 35 years, Dan.


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