Wow. I forgot how back in the day Debbie Macomber would have love scenes in her books. It's been a while so it actually shocked me for a second. This is the first book in the Cedar Cove series that I haven't read in years. I still have a bunch of these on my shelves at home, but since I was traveling and got stuck in Boston, decided to re-read the first three since I had some free time. 

 

"16 Lighthouse Road" stars a whole cast of characters, but focuses mostly on two couples, couple number one is Judge Olivia Lockhart and journalist Jack Griffin. Couple number two is Ian and Cecilia Randall. We also get some third person POVs from Olivia's daughter Justine, her mother Charlotte, and her best friend Grace. 

 

I liked that Macomber tackles real issues in this book (Cecilia and Ian are divorcing after the death of their newborn daughter, Jack is a recovering alcoholic). 

 

The kick off to book #1 is that Olivia makes a controversial decision concerning the divorce of Ian and Cecilia which causes Jack Griffin to write about her. With Olivia not sure if she likes the newspaper man, she can't help but be intrigued and flattered by him. These two honestly reminded me a bit of Spencer and Tracy with their dialogue. Olivia has a lot of heartache in her past. She had to bury a son and due to his death it caused the breakup of her own marriage. 

 

Cecilia I found a bit too complacent. Her marriage to Ian was done on the spur of the moment and I didn't think they belonged together at first. But Macomber has them writing emails (which are shown in this book) and you can see that Ian still loves his wife and wishes he had been there for her when they lost their child. 

We do get some hot love scenes (guess who) and I was pleasantly surprised by them. I started to dislike the later books which always had people just rushing off to get married without having sex first, sorry, that reads as so unrealistic to me in contemporary romance novels. 

 

The town of Cedar Cove is a fan favorite, and I can see why Macomber returned back her with her Rose Harbor series. I used to have fun imagining all of the places discussed in this book and where everyone lived. 

 

Though we don't focus on some of the character on the periphery in this one, Macomber gives you enough taste of them to get a feel for these characters. 

 

These books also always introduce who is going to be the focus of the next book and this one easily slides into Grace's story "204 Rosewood Lane". 

DNF at 45%

I hate DNF'ing. I swear it physically pains me to DNF but mother of god...



I was in the mood for something a little different and the mother likes this stuff so I decided to give it a shot. Not. For. Me.

The characters were just so rigid and a bit too proper. I mean there is a 22 year old women who uses the word 'vehicle' and wears slacks and reads like a 102 year old. To be fair she goes through something horrendous that would age anyone but she sounds just like our family matriarch who is 70 odd and oh my goodness annoyed the heart and soul out of me. Actually pretty much everyone in Cedar Cove annoyed the heart and soul out of me. If they weren't being ridiculously churlish or unreasonable. They were all also almost child like with how they dealt with their problems. Christ on a bike I like a bit of the miscommunication trope but how can a whole town be suffering from the same thing? People there needs to check the water or something.

And the cherry on top of this low fat soya ice-cream Sunday? Lots of kids dying. Starts off with one in fact. Now, I knew what I was getting into with this genre, pain and suffering is the norm but lads!! This be too much!! Misunderstanding and heartache followed by HEA be my crack for a reason. Pain and suffering followed by what feels like non stop misunderstanding, heartache and death be a way of making Tara, who is already a bit too fond of the vino, all the more fond of it.

Anyways. I'm off too OD on some KA and will maybe try to get the mammy to read her. Although I don't know if I want her asking about alpha males and falling my Tate and Tack.




Actually on second thoughts it's probably best she stays where she is. She don't like change much.

I enjoyed the TV series Cedar Cove on Hallmark Channel and was disappointed when Hallmark decided not to continue with the series, so I decided to try reading the books to revisit the characters and see how they differed from the TV series. I had heard there were quite a few differences and so far, after finishing the first book in the series, there are some minor ones compared to the TV pilot.

I will say that I liked the TV series better, but maybe that's because it's what I knew first. It was a nice fluffy escape for me on Saturdays and I'll miss it. The book lacks some of the charm that the TV series had. I think the author could do a better job of describing the surroundings, but I think the main problem with the book is that there is too much telling and not enough showing. There are things that are glossed over, events that are mentioned, but then skipped, and the book jumps forward in time a week and sometimes a month.

As far as the characters go:

-I liked Olivia as much as I did in the TV series and I had no problem picturing Andie McDowell as I read the book.

-I found Jack to be a bit wittier in the book and I liked him better than the Jack on the TV series.

-Justine was hard to like for a while and I didn't think her relationship with Warren really made any sense. She was very different from the Justine I knew from the TV series. I definitely liked the TV Justine better.

-Warren was pretty much the same Warren; he just seemed a little older in the book…and impotent? I never pictured the Warren on TV as impotent. I liked the scheming Warren on TV better.

-I loved Seth. He was better in the book than on the TV series, but I thought his romance with Justine kind of came out of nowhere and progressed too quickly.

-Cecelia annoyed me with her immaturity and the way she blamed Ian for things he couldn't help, and I wasn't any more interested in their story than I was when I watched the series. I got tired of the back and forth in her relationship with Ian. They should have just talked to each other! I did find that their relationship played out much better in the book, especially the emotions, which seemed glossed over in the TV pilot.

-I liked Ian and I mostly felt sorry for him because of the way Cecelia treated him, except for the part in the hospital, that seemed to come out of left field and I didn't really understand why he acted the way he did. I liked him better in the book.

-I thought Grace was likable except for the fact that I wanted her to stop being a door mat. I think she was pretty well portrayed in the TV series, and I liked her the same here. I was glad that she moved on in the end.

-Charlotte was the real surprise here. She wasn't this well developed in the TV series and I liked her personality better in the book. I wish she had stayed on the TV series longer.

One thing I am wondering is if Moon exists in any of the books. He ended up being a favorite character on the show.

Overall this was an ok escape-type read. It was nothing spectacular, just light fluff, but sometimes that's what I need. I will most likely be reading more of the series.

16 lighthouse road
Debbie Macomber
★☆★

I liked this book. I did. I didn't love this book, it didn't pull me in like other books have. I was told this was a romamce series. There is romance, but nothing steamy lol! Soaps are more steamy than this. It was drama/womems fiction which I don't mimd at all.

Charlotte (Judge olivias mom) is probably one of my fave chatacters. I'm not too fond of what I've seen of Jack (olivias current interest) Justine (olivias daughter) wasn't very likeable. I did like seth though. Grace was sweet and I felt very sorry for what she had to go through.
my biggest thing with this book I think is we met so many charachters to begin with there wasn't any connection. I can't even tell yoi which character was the main character in this book.

I did love Cecilia and Ians story. I real ly would have liked to get a more in depth look at the them. I feel they should have a book more about them. Their issues are real life issues people especially ones in the military face. I would have liked to see them actually work through it more. it all seemed to fast for me. one minute they hate eachother, then they can sorta stand eachother, then tragedy strikes and magically everythings ok. I didn't like that

it was a good book. Had a lot going on
I will continue this series, but I'm not in a hurry.