Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber. MIRA Books. May 2009. ISBN #: 9780778326434

Knitting forces its fans to grow no matter what challenges arise, to follow and change patterns where necessary in order to create something deeply and truly beautiful! Debbie Macomber here welcomes her Blossom Street fans back to another story of possibilities in the very real world full of unexpected ups and downs!

Lydia Goetz, knitting teacher and store owner, and her husband Brad have a huge dream to adopt a child, an immense plan fraught with difficulty as Lydia is a two-time survivor of cancer. Her sister, Margaret, cares so much but walks on eggshells with her comments. How do you encourage such a person to live life to the fullest and at the same time not take risks that could produce formidable difficulties? But Lydia's a woman of spirit who lives her life like her craft and we enter her surprising world with wonder at what patterns await her future.

Then meet Phoebe Rylander, a strong-minded woman who has just broken her engagement with a handsome but cheating man, a guy who just can't seem to realize that breaking faith is just what guys do and whose lies are about to change Phoebe's world forever.

Bryan "Hutch" Hutchinson is a CEO of a well-known chocolate company, a man whose lifestyles seem to indicate he may not live much longer than his father who died young of a massive heart attack. All work, no exercise, a fast food diet and a lack of a meaningful relationship seem sure to guarantee his demise as well unless he's willing to embrace some drastic change.

Alix Turner is not your usual minister's wife. A rebel with a rather unusual past, Alix knows she needs to quit smoking if she can have a healthy child with her husband, Jordan; but Alix hides a deeper fear than that of dropping her addictive habit, a fear she must face before her task becomes even slightly possible.

Finally, meet Anne-Marie Roche, whose return from a Paris vacation is about to become rather upsetting as a man claiming to be her adopted daughter's father appears and demands his rights.

Oh, there's so much more than what's written above in this well-plotted tale of dynamic, fascinating and flawed characters who meet for Lydia's "Knit to Quit" classes. Debbie Macomber's romance is so very refreshing in the way it realistically, quietly and passionately develops, shored up in the world of love that allows its infatuation to develop into something abiding and special enough to survive anything! Summer in Blossom Street is a terrific novel both Macomber fans and new readers will savor and pass on to many others, perhaps in their own book or knitting clubs!