haven't read this yet

"The Shop on Blossom Street" is a feel good novel about how four very different women, going through very different times in their lives, become close friends through unlikely circumstances. Challenges and coincidences bring them together, but their one main thread (pun intended) is the knitting class they attend. The novel is mostly predictable, but even though you know some things are going to happen, the author writes well enough that you are either surprised when they do or caught off guard by a slight twist in plans.

I'm sure many women find this particular novel special because they can relate to one or more of the characters. Lydia is afraid to fall in love (and to let others fall in love with her), Carol is determined to become a mother no matter what it takes, Jacqueline has to step off her pedestal to learn some life lessons, and Alix has to overcome the past that keeps tempting her to return to its grip.

The main characters drive this story, but I found the secondary characters to be just as important and interesting. Actually, now that I think about it, I can relate pretty well to Tammie Lee, Jacqueline's not-good-enough daughter-in-law from the South. Anyway, it bothered me a little bit that all the guys in the book were just perfectly romantic men, and that Alix might not have escaped poverty if it hadn't been for Jacqueline's money. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable, easy read, perfect for summertime.

Oh, and I should add: I thought I would be bored by the knitting because I don't knit. I wasn't at all. ( )

Book 1 in the Blossom Street Series.

I didn't read this book because I knit, because I don't. I didn't learn anything about knitting and I don't intend to start knitting because of it. It just so happens that this is a book about women who are in a knitting group.

I really enjoyed this book. The character development is very good. There are four women and each is dealing with a different issue in her life--Lydia (the shop owner) is recovering from cancer (twice), Jacquline is trying to accept her daughter-in-law and the grandbaby on the way, Carol is dealing with infertility, and Alix is just trying to deal with life when she has nothing.

Carol was the easiest for me to relate to since she is infertile and dealing with IVF--just like me. Macomber's descriptions of her feelings were spot on. When I read about infertility I am very harsh because most authors oversimplify it or make the women out to be truly insane (like kidnapping babies or such). Carol's descriptions were real--how she felt about getting a baby announcement, they inability to conceive, or the hope she felt. Of course it gets tied up in a bow at the end which doesn't always happen in real life, but it is a book.

The other 3 women I couldn't relate to nearly as much, so I can't say if Macomber got their emotions on target. It seems to me that each one was pretty darn good, though, even if they weren't perfect. I liked all the characters and the progression for each one's story was easy to follow and welcomed.

Yes, some things were a little predictable, but nothing terrible that made me groan (it wasn't like a mystery where you could figure out the culprit in the first 50 pages). I liked this book. Once I had the time to read, I kept reading until I was done. It was a typical Macomber that is a 'happy' book that just makes you smile in the end. ( )

The shop on blossom street is cliched and normative chick lit. It's about four women, a woman who had cancer and needs to learn to love again, an older woman who's feeling estranged in her relationship and from her son who needs to learn to love again, a woman who wants a BABY so needs a BABY and a girl who is poor and wasn't loved as a child and needs to learn to love again. The plot procedes in the normal way. Cancer woman learns that she needs a man with her or she'll never survive, estranged woman learns that she is responsible for her husband turning away from her (what the fuck?) and needs to be more assertive in the bedroom, poor punk girl learns to be less punk, to go church and have money by loving the son of a preacher and baby woman gets a baby. Because what woman really want is babies, love and a man to come in and take care of everything in their lives for them.

This book was not for me, not be a long shot. I suppose if you like stories that reinforce the heteronormative, sexist social order where men are strong and women are weak and want babies and love this story might be for you, but I personally couldn't stomach it and was glad to close it. ( )

Opening Sentence: '...The first time I saw the empty store on Blossom Street I thought of my father...'

Lydia Hoffman, a two-time cancer survivor, opens a knitting shop 'A Good Yarn' as a symbol of the new life she plans to lead. She starts a weekly knitting class, hoping to improve business and make friends in the area. The initial class project is a baby blanket. The first to sign up is the very rich Jacqueline Donovan, who loathes her pregnant daughter-in-law but hopes to prove that she will be a good grandmother by knitting a baby blanket. Carol Girard joins the group as she sees the knitting class as a sign that she will finally have a successful in vitro pregnancy. The last member of the the first knitting class is Alix Townsend, a high school drop-out with an absentee father and a mother in jail. She is using the class to satisfy a court-ordered community service sentence for a drug-possession conviction for which her room-mate is really responsible.

Debbie Macomber is an adept storyteller and I was engrossed in this well-paced story about how each of the four women find happiness and fulfilment through their growing friendships. Yes the endings are predictable - but that is why I read it - it is easy to read, relaxing and interesting to see how the happy endings are achieved - the little miracles that occur in each woman's life.

I have another in the series on the go now. ( )