A Silver Lining is all we need. Review on Silver Linings - Debbie Macomber

Often we meet strangers in the journey of life,

Some may touch our heartwith a kind deed,

Some may quietly lend a sympathetic ear,

Many times, a good listener is all we need!

About the Author:

Debbie Macomber has written around 150 novels in the Romance/light fiction genre. Her series of books - ‘Rose Harbor’, ‘Cedar Cove’ and ‘Blossom Street’ have been much loved by her fans. Some of her books have been adapted for television. Each of the 12 novels in the Rose Harbor Inn series describes new people booking the rooms for a couple of days at the inn. The rest of the book then describes the transitions in their life. This book is 5th in order in the series.

Plot:

Best friends Coco Crenshaw and Katie Gilroy have returned to Cedar Cove for their ten-year high school reunion. While Coco is is funloving and spontaneous, Katie is reserved and introverted.

Coco’s only objective to attend this reunion is to humiliate Ryan who was a conceited and over-smart brat during college days. Ever since they left college, she has been nurturing this hatred for him and finally is going to get her revenge. But is Ryan the same as he was in his college days or has he matured with time?

Katie is looking forward to meeting her ex-flame James in hopes to bridge the gap that she had once created. She had avoided all contact with him for 10 years to help him focus on his career. Now, she realizes that she was childish to throw away a relationship that could have fetched both of them a lifetime of happiness. Will James trust Katie again?

Jo Marie is the owner of ‘Rose Harbor Inn’ - a quaint bed and breakfast on the shore of the Cedar Cove lake. She firmly believes that her inn has some magic or energy that can transform the lives of the people staying there and extradite the turmoil the tenants find themselves in. She is looking for some magic too, to disentangle the turmoils in her own life. Will the inn fulfill her dreams too is a question to be answered in the rest of the novels in the series. So, while Coco’s and Katie’s stories have predictable and happy endings, Jo Marie’s track is left dangling.

My Opinion:

In the last few months, I have read/listened to a few of Macomber’s books and liked them. Although I liked the ‘Blossom Street’ series way better than ‘Rose Harbor’, these books too, are good for readers who wish to read light fiction on a warm afternoon with a cup of coffee. I like the way the tenants of ‘Rose Harbor Inn’ form a bond of friendship with Jo Marie after dedicating the success of their respective ventures to her and the inn. The landscapes forming the backdrop for this book are beautiful and memorable. The reader can picturise this pretty inn vividly on the rose filled banks of a sparkling lake.

However, as the narration of the story elevates the liking of this book, the characters lower the interest. Coco seems to be just as immature as she was in her college days, if not more. Her attending a reunion miles away from her town with the sole intention of revenge is quite unbelievable and childish. The quiet and sensitive Katie conveniently tries to rekindle a lost relationship 10 years after brutally ending it herself. How can James be sure that she won’t change her mind again?

A good test to find whether the reader genuinely liked the characters is by asking the question, “Would you like to have this character as your friend?” For this book’s characters, my answer would be a resounding NO! A good book cannot bloom well using the support of shallow characters.

All in all, a strictly ‘ok’ book.