Product Description

What Anne Marie Roche wants is to find happiness again. At thirty-eight, she's childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattle's Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, there's a feeling of emptiness.

On Valentine's Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebrateÂ…hope. They each begin a list of twenty wishes, things they always wanted to do but never did.

Anne Marie's list includes learning to knit, falling in love again, doing good for someone else. When she volunteers at a local school, an eight-year-old girl named Ellen enters her life. It's a relationship that becomes far more involving—and far more important—than Anne Marie had ever imagined.

As Ellen helps Anne Marie complete her list of twenty wishes, they both learn that wishes can come trueÂ…but not necessarily in the way you expect.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12024 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780778326311
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Macomber returns to Seattle's fictional Blossom Street of A Good Yarn (and others) for a hopeful tale of four widows who meet at 38-year-old Anne Marie Roche's bookstore. Separated from her husband after he refused to have a baby with her, Anne Marie felt certain they would reconcile—until he suddenly died. Lillie Higgins lost her husband in the same plane crash that claimed the husband of their daughter, Barbie Foster. Elise Beaumont entered widowhood after cancer claimed her husband. Together, the four make life-fulfillment wish lists. With Elise's prodding, Anne Marie decides to fulfill one of her wishes—do good for someone else—and becomes a lunch buddy to an at-risk third grader. Anne Marie, meanwhile, must deal with the reappearance of her adult stepdaughter, Melissa, who always held her in disdain. Elise mainly serves as a catalyst for Anne Marie's journey, but there is plenty of focus on Lillian and Barbie, who find purpose in unexpected and difficult relationships. Though stilted dialogue can pull readers out of the moment, Macomber's assured storytelling and affirming narrative is as welcoming as your favorite easy chair. (May)
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From Booklist
Macomber brings her readers back to Seattle’s Blossom Street and quickly whisks us into the lives of its inhabitants. This tale begins on Valentine’s Day at Anne Marie Roche’s bookstore when four widows—Anne Marie, Elise, Lillie, and her daughter, Barbie, members of one of her book groups—decide to celebrate friendship together. One of them brings up the idea of making a list of wishes: things they’ve secretly wanted to accomplish but never did. However hesitant they might be at first, as the women complete their lists, they begin to embrace the idea of making each wish a fact. Anne Marie, especially, has had a hard time coming to terms with the death of her older husband and for almost a year has holed up inside her store and herself. Her wishes are fulfilled in ways she’d never imagine. Witnessing her rebirth is a joy to behold. Even the most hard-hearted readers will find themselves rooting for the women in this hopeful story while surreptitiously wiping away tears and making their own lists of wishes. --Maria Hatton

Review
Macomber returns to Seattle's fictional Blossom Street of A Good Yarn (and others) for a hopeful tale of four widows who meet at 38-year-old Anne Marie Roche's bookstore. Separated from her husband after he refused to have a baby with her, Anne Marie felt certain they would reconcile until he suddenly died. Lillie Higgins lost her husband in the same plane crash that claimed the husband of their daughter, Barbie Foster. Elise Beaumont entered widowhood after cancer claimed her husband. Together, the four make life-fulfillment wish lists. With Elise's prodding, Anne Marie decides to fulfill one of her wishes do good for someone else and becomes a lunch buddy to an at-risk third grader. Anne Marie, meanwhile, must deal with the reappearance of her adult stepdaughter, Melissa, who always held her in disdain. Elise mainly serves as a catalyst for Anne Marie's journey, but there is plenty of focus on Lillian and Barbie, who find purpose in unexpected and difficult relationships. Though stilted dialogue can pull readers out of the moment, Macomber's assured storytelling and affirming narrative is as welcoming as your favorite easy chair. --Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

Can A Light-Hearted Summer Read Change Your Life?
Debbie Macomber doesn't write heavy Russian novels with tragic heroines and deep, multi-layered plots. She writes novels that appeal to millions of ordinary women. So why do I think this simply delightful book could change your life? It's because she compels you to do one tiny little thing---make a list of twenty things you want to do in life. She invites you to celebrate hope, to fill that nagging void in your life, and to tell your brain the secrets of your heart.

Anne Marie Roche, the widowed owner of Blossom Street Books, invites three other widows to celebrate with her what could have been a sad Valentine's Day for all four. At thirty-eight, Anne Marie still longs for the child she never had. Her husband Robert already had a family when she married him and he had no desire to start another and be mistaken for his child's grandfather.

The other widows are Barbie Foster, forty-something mother of twin boys, who lost both her husband and father in the same fatal plane crash; her mother, Lillie Higgins, a sixtyish society matron; and Elise Beaumont, a retired librarian who'd reconnected with her husband after thirty years apart, only to lose him again after three.

While Lillie and Barbie set about accomplishing their lists with gusto, Anne Marie moves a bit slower and needs the guiding hand of Elise to steer her on a quest to find one good thing about her life. A Lunch Buddy program at the local school leads her to Ellen, a shy eight-year-old, and to a surprisingly rewarding life that includes knitting, dancing in the rain, and the trip to Paris she has always wanted to take. Anne Marie's life fills with happiness and love, not in the way she imagined it would, but in a way that will leave the reader deeply satisfied. (You'll probably also fall in love with Baxter, her tail-wagging Yorkshire terrier pictured on the cover and charming from beginning to end).

What these four women learn about love and life, but mostly about themselves, will have you turning the pages and cheering for them. Most of all, it will set your brain spinning about the things you want to accomplish in your own life. Don't be surprised to find that by the time you finish the book you'll have your own list of twenty wishes.

The best ever
I love Debbie Macomber and this is without any question her best book yet. You don't have to be a widow to understand this - just a woman who has wishes that she'd like to fulfill. This would make an excellent book for reading groups and I can't recommend it highly enough. I read it in 24 hours - I just couldn't put it down and I'm going to read it again. That's great praise coming from me who rarely reads a book more than once but this one is worth it. I've started my own list of 20 Wishes. It would make a great gift.

I LOVE Debbie Macomber's world!!!
Just finished reading this delightful book, and as with all her books found myself laughing and then crying throughout. Her characters (people) are so real that I feel that I'm there with them. Am so grateful we have this wonderful writer who shares these stories with us. Also, know it's a different book or series but I LOVE her angel books too! Just finished the latest one and it too was delightful! Thanks Debbie!!!