Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

When a single mom becomes an empty nester, she spreads her wings to rediscover herself—and her passions—in this heartwarming novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber.
 
Jenna Boltz’s life is at a crossroads. After a messy divorce from her surgeon husband nearly twenty years ago, she raised her two children on her own, juggling motherhood with her beloved job as a Seattle intensive-care nurse. Now that Paul and Allie have gone to college and moved out, Jenna can’t help but wonder what her future holds.

Her best friend, Maureen, is excited for Jenna’s newfound independence. Now is the perfect time to finally book the trip to Paris they’ve been dreaming of since their college days. But when it comes to life’s other great adventure—dating—Jenna still isn’t sure she’s ready to let love in . . . until an unexpected encounter begins to change her mind.

When Jenna’s elderly mother breaks her hip, Dr. Rowan Lancaster saves the day. Despite his silent, stoic exterior, Rowan is immediately smitten with Jenna. And even though Jenna is hesitant about becoming involved with another surgeon, she has to admit that she’s more than a little intrigued. But when Jenna’s children approach her with shocking news, she realizes that she needs to have faith in love and embrace the unexpected—before the life she has always dreamed of passes her by.

Many of Macomber’s books end up as Hallmark movies and I couldn’t help but think about that as I read it, primarily because the main characters were not twenty- or thirty-somethings. They were grown ass women experiencing the empty nest syndrome. I like romances every now and then that remember that older women can fall in love, too. Of course, this being a Macomber book, these are chaste women, despite their ages, life experiences and the fact they have children. And being that one of them is a librarian with little dating experience struck me as being a bad stereotype that I really can’t stand. I am a librarian, so I have strong feelings about this! But since she was recommending books I looked past it and read on.

The story shifts between the two women. Maureen is the librarian who is teased as “Marian the librarian” (if you don’t know that reference, Google is your friend) and Jenna, a nurse. Both are divorced and have been friends since they were girls, helping each other through life’s challenges. That continues here as Jenna’s mother has a bad fall, her son seems to be keeping secrets and her daughter is changing as she is now living on the college campus and is on her own for the first time in her life. Jenna is having a hard time with all of it. Maureen is just having trouble with her attraction to a plumber who likes to read, making her realize she needs to be a bit more open minded. Both are having relationships (finally) and both have a lot of hurdles to get over to make those relationships work. Some of those hurdles were pretty funny, others more serious. The ending was a bit muddy, I would have liked more clarity, but that is a minor quibble.

This is another good read from Macomber and her fans should be very happy with this book.

7/19 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

WINDOW ON THE BAY by Debbie Macomber. Ballantine Books (July 16, 2019). ISBN 978-0399181337. 336p.

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