Susannah's Garden (A Blossom Street Novel)

I just became a Debbie Macomber fan. I started with The Rose Harbor series then moved onto the Blossom street novels. If I started with this book, I never would have read another one. The story was ridiculous and does not tie into Blossom Street until the very end. It's about this woman who has to spend the summer in her home town to get her mother settled into a assisted living, and all the things that happen to her as she meets people with whom she grew up. Although she is a grown woman with teenagers of her own, she is so immature she acts like a teenager herself. The things that transpire were just absorb.

The writing was amateur in parts. In fact, I kind of get the feeling she wrote this early in her career and decided to tie it into her series, and so decided to add that bit at the end. I've read enough of her books to be convinced this was a fluke, and I will continue with the series based on how much I love her other books.

I found this to be an enjoyable book. I could relate to many of the situations addressed in this book. There were many times when I wanted Susannah to stand up to her daughter, but I felt that Susannah was paralyzed by the situation she found herself in. She was in the typical "sandwich" generation. She was dealing with her elderly mother while trying to deal with her difficult college-aged daughter. My only disappointment about this book was that one part of the story line was not resolved. It was just ignored. Resolving that part of the story could have easily added another chapter. Perhaps the publisher thought the book was too long and took that chapter out. If that is true, Ms. Macomber, is there any way to get that chapter?

This was a good story that moved at a fast pace and kept me fascinated. Perfect when you need to get things off your mind and lose yourself in someone else and their difficulties

Though this is book number three in the knitting book series, I did not know this when I chose this audio book and it can be a stand alone and everything is explained fully and don't feel that I missed anything from listening to 1 and 2 first.

Susannah Nelson has a normal life, but something seems missing. There is no real spark or drive. She is a fifth grade teacher, she has a husband and two teenage children.

When she gets a call and realizes that her mother is no longer able to live on her own since her husbands passing, Susannah decides to go home, to Colville, Washington to try and convince her mother that it's time to move into an assisted living facility.

Susannah while planning to go home keeps on having, reoccurring dreams of a high school sweetheart, the death of her brother thirty years before and unresolved problems with her deceased father.

When back in her home town she decides to find Jake, the high school sweetheart, and find out why he suddenly disappeared from her life. Susannah finds so much more then she ever bargained for. Can you expect your husband of twenty-five years to have the excitement and intensity of your high school boyfriend?

Inside this story there is a blackmail story. I will always remember my parents saying to me as a teen don't ever let anyone blackmail you over ANYTHING. You come and tell us and let us handle it. Me being a little Miss Innocent never understood while they said it but I never forgot their advise. In this story there is the BEST blackmail plot and solution. I will keep this audio as an example. If anyone ever gets a blackmail demand. Read or listen to this story. Great example and lessons to be learned on all fronts.

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The author's endless head nodding, shrugging, with an added twist in this book, people shrugging one shoulder, head shaking and eyes narrowing. Maybe it doesn't seem bad if you are reading a text, but I can say, listening to this on CD was painful with all the stupid nodding, shrugging, head shaking. People don't do this, so why she continues to write this is beyond me. But her fans just eat it up, no matter what she write.

Susannah Nelson, aged 50, is vaguely unsettled despite her tranquil home and long-term successful marriage to husband Joe. Why is she suddenly dreaming about Jake, her high school sweetheart? She hopes that her summer vacation, with its respite from her teaching career, will help return her perspective on her life.

Joe suspects that Susannah's recent pensive mood is actually depression, stemming from her father's November death. Susannah is equally certain that that is not the problem, given the strained relationship she shared with her father. She concedes that maybe her father's death started her thinking of Jake again, since he probably played a part in breaking them up. Now she longs for closure of that long-ago relationship with Jake and the sudden ending that has always mystified her.

Susannah is distracted from her problems when she learns that her elderly mother, Vivian, who is back in Susannah's home town, is having problems. Vivian accuses her longtime housekeeper of stealing from her. She is forgetful, has gotten lost while wandering, is losing weight, and no longer has a social life. Vivian insists she has seen her husband, even though she realizes he is dead. Susannah decides to go stay with her mother, planning to settle her into an assisted-living community. She's also hoping for the opportunity to talk to Jake. She feels driven to find out the truth behind their breakup so she can put an end to her fantasies about him.

Meanwhile, Susannah and Joe's daughter Chrissie dreads leaving college to spend the summer with her parents --- especially her critical mother. Chrissie also dreads the separation from her perfect boyfriend, while knowing that something feels wrong between the two of them.

After spending time with her mother, Susannah realizes that she is in worse condition than she'd feared. She's glad she has reconnected with her childhood friend Carolyn, who proves to be as easy to confide in as ever. Carolyn, now running her family's lumber mill, is equally thrilled to have a friend re-enter her life, enabling her to disclose the burgeoning attraction she feels to her gardener.

When Vivian finally agrees to move to an assisted-living apartment, Susannah's job isn't finished. She must sort and dispose of her parents' lifetime accumulation and clean the house in order to sell or rent it out. She must also deal with her own guilt and sorrow. Her burden is increased when Chrissie arrives to "help" her mother pack up Vivian's home, and lands in a relationship with a man who is every mother's nightmare.

An intriguing mystery surrounding Susannah's deceased brother develops, clue by tantalizing clue. Why is her father not buried with his only son? Who leaves flowers on Doug's grave? Is it the same person who breaks into Vivian's house and steals his high school mementos? Could it be that nothing --- and no one --- connected to Susannah's past is as she remembers?

It's clear that Debbie Macomber cares deeply about her fully-realized characters and their family, friends and loves, along with their hopes and dreams. She also makes her readers care about them. Macomber capably serves up several unexpected plot turns in SUSANNAH'S GARDEN topped off with a doozy of a satisfying ending, complete with the biggest, most surprising twist of all. It all adds up to a pleasurably engrossing read.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon ([email protected])

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Sometimes the only way to move forward is by going back...

Susannah Nelson is in a quandary. She's got a wonderful life and a strong family but something is missing. Lately she's been spending lots of time reflecting on her youth and with those memories comes thoughts of her ex-boyfriend, Jake Presley. She can't get him out of her mind, never quite understanding why he ended things with her, but believing her father may have had something to do with it.

Susannah's father has recently been deceased and her widowed mother is not adapting well to this, her memories growing fuzzier and convinced her neighbors are robbing her blind. Then there's the fact she insists her late husband, George is still with her and that she's even had conversations with him. Susannah and her family have come to the realization the best thing for her mother may be to enroll her in Assisted Living, though her mother firmly believes the best place for her is her very own home.

When Susannah returns to Colville, Washington to be with her mother for the summer, she becomes determined to find out what happened to that long ago boyfriend, Troy, even if it means alienating her husband and children. As she delves into the annals of the past, Susannah begins to come to terms with her father's death and the estrangement they had for long years before he died, realizing her perspectives may not always be the clearest ones.

I have to say as I was reading Susannah's Garden and we stated getting deep into Susannah's thoughts about her ex, I was worried about how Debbie Macomber would keep Susannah sympathetic. I had my doubts about her, wondering how she could be so obsessed with Jake when she has such a good life with her husband, not a perfect life, but a better one than many people ever find. So it irritated me a little bit that she was so obsessed with her long ago ex-boyfriend. However, as the story progresses and we learn more about what happened all those years ago and in the time since, I came to understand that Susannah had to go through that. Jake was her "what-might-have-been" that everybody has in their lives. Without her search for Jake and the answers to why he seemingly abandoned her, and the ties between that and her brother's death thirty years ago, she never would have been able to fully appreciate just how lucky she really was to have the life and family she did.

Also, the parallels between Susannah's high school and college years and those of her own daughter, Chrissie, come glaring into view as a result of her digging into the past. Susannah was at odds with her strict father over just about everything in her life and that caused tension between her and her mother Vivian since Susannah could never understand why they did what they did. Through it all, Susannah realizes she is repeating history with her own daughter and that if she doesn't repair their relationship, she may lose her, just as George and Vivian lost Susannah.

I have to say though, I was most especially touched by Vivian's story. The poor woman brought tears to my eyes so many times, in happy and sad ways. I was amazed at the depth of the love Vivian had for her husband. Her devotion to him was unwavering, even after he died. Vivian is lost without him and this is evident in everything she does and her own spirit seems to be fading. The only thing keeping her going is the conversations she insists she has with his ghost.

Debbie Macomber is brilliant at depicting relationships of friends and family alike in her heartwarming yet tear jerker stories. She delves deep into difficult subjects and knows when to tread lightly or when to go all out. Her character development is incredible and I truly see and feel the differences in her characters between the first and final pages. Susannah's Garden says a lot about how paste events can have such lasting impacts on our lives, even decades later.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, October 2008. All rights reserved.

Can you ever relive the past? Can you expect your husband of twenty-five years to have the excitement and intensity of your high school boyfriend? Susannah Leary Nelson discovers the answers to these questions and more in Debbie Macomber's heartwarming tale of a family in crisis.

Susannah's mother, Vivian Leary, has not adjusted well to the death of her husband. She appears to be on the brink of Alzheimer's and distraught about the things she can no longer do. Susannah, restless and bored in her own marriage, decides to visit her mom and along with being a dutiful daughter perhaps track down the one who got away, the boy she has recently been dreaming of and wondering would he have been a better mate than the man she actually married.

As if her mother's illness isn't overwhelming enough, Susannah's daughter soon shows up on summer break from college and upsets Susannah further by dating an unsavory older man. Susannah makes some bad decisions for the sake of driving the plot, decisions like leaving town when her daughter will be arriving that very day or paying blackmail money without first discussing it with her husband. Yet, we can forgive Susannah because her situation is so distressing and she is in such a state of emotional upheaval. I would suggest Debbie Macomber stick with the warm friends and family stories she does so well and stay away from mysteries. She made a valiant effort but the solution to the mystery was a little too unusual to be believable. Yet, the basic story captivated me and left me wanting more. I was thrilled at the end to discover Susannah will be opening a flower shop on Blossom Street and joining Macomber's cast of characters in the Blossom Street series.

Now middle-aged, Susannah Nelson has everything she could ever want or need - a loving husband, two almost grown children, and a career teaching fifth graders. Then why was she feeling so dissatisfied? In addition, why was she thinking about her lost teenage love every day?

Her father had recently died and her mother was showing acute signs of senility. Susannah was having an increasing number of dreams about her high school sweetheart who had unexpectedly disappeared after her father sent her to a boarding school in France when she was eighteen. Sensing her father had something to do with Jake's disappearance, Susannah believed her Dad's death somehow triggered the memories of the distant past. That same year her brother had died in a car accident and her father would not let her come home for the funeral adding to her confusion and hurt.

Susannah decided to go to Colville, Washington as soon as school was out for the summer to convince her mother to enter an assisted living facility. Besides, if she took the trip by herself, she could search for clues as to what happened to Jake.

What she found relieved many unanswered questions and gave her the strength to face the future.

Debbie Macomber weaves a story taut with emotion, memories, loss, and regret. She deftly draws the reader into the soul of each character so the reader feels what they feel and understands their struggles. The characters are believable and the tension between family members palpable. What family has not questioned their role in the family unit and wondered what might have been if different decisions had been made.

Susannah's Garden is a compelling story of a family who learns the true meaning of love, even when that means letting go of expectations and control.

Susannah's Garden

Have you ever thought of your first real love? What are they doing? What would life be like if I married them? This is Susanna's fantasy.Happily married and the mother of almost two grown children Susanna begins to think about her first love. Dad sends her to France to separate her from bad boy Jake. While in France her brother Doug dies in a car crash. Susanna could never forgive her father (a judge) for separating her from bad boy Jake and not letting her come home for Doug's funeral. 30 years later her father, a man she has has hated for over 30 years, dies living her mother unable to take care of herself due to a failing memory. Susanna has to leave her home for a few months and puts her mother in a an assisted care center. Her mother see's her father as he visits. Clue number #1. As Susanna begins to downsize the house she comes across her father's secrete life. Susanna decides to find Jake putting her marriage at risk. Her daughter Chrissy comes to stay with her and meets a bad boy too and falls in love. Susanna does not see that her daughter is doing the same thing she did. Susanna is even acting like her father trying to separate her daughter from this messed up 30 year old man who will end up in a Prison Hilton someday. Story has a nice twist and happy ending.

This book could have gone on forever and I wouldn't have minded. Susannah has been married for twenty-five years and is happy with her husband and two kids. So why is she dreaming of a boyfriend from long ago? She thought her dad was against her all those years. She gets a phone call from her mother's maid, who says her mom seems to be a bit confused and thinks Susannah should come and visit earlier than planned.

So she travels from Seattle to Colville, also hoping to meet up with the long lost boyfriend, Jake. She gets her mother to finally move into an assisted living facility, and is packing all her parent's stuff up in hopes of selling soon. Her daughter arrives without notice and says she wants to help her mom and also be there for her grandmother. In the meantime, she meets a "bad boy". Now Susannah knows how her parents felt when she was in love with Jake. Susannah starts to feel as if someone has been in the house a few times and taken belongings of her parents' and her dead older brother, Doug.

Mysteries unvail and Susannah figures out what her husband means to her. This book will go by so quick, you won't want it to end. I for one, hope there is another one coming!

I have just found Debbie Macomber's books, and I have purchased several in CD form. This book was outstanding; the characters, the story. It captivated me thoroughly. The surprise ending was the best. I am so excited about reading her other books, I ordered 3 more stories.
SusanQ/Fresno

Debbie Macomber never fails to overwhelm me with the emotion, humanity and family inter-relationships she puts in her books. Susannah's Garden is no exception. The ups and downs created heartache, heartfelt sympathy, overwhelming emotional connection with a parents' decisions and how they affect their children. Did I do the right thing? I kept a box of tissues close by and you should believe me when I advise you to do the same.

When I began reading Susannah's Garden, I couldn't imagine what connection there was to The Blossom Street series except the main character, Susannah was from Seattle. All is explained in the last couple of chapters and I am so glad I made the decision to finish the book. I never would have put it down without finishing it because it is a Debbie Macomber book but I always collect a complete series before I read it. I didn't want this book to interrupt the continuity already established by the previous books. You must read this book if you are reading the series so you know how the flower shop on Blossom Street evolved into it's current status. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did and will read the whole series.

Write on, Debbie. I can't wait for your next book. Enjoy!!

Debbie Macomber is one of my favorite authors and I never miss her HC release each spring. SUSANNAH'S GARDEN will not disappoint loyal fans and will entertain and welcome new readers. This time around, Debbie throws in a little mystery along the way, which to be honest, wasn't too hard (for me, anyway) to figure out early on.

Susannah is a woman nearing 50 who finds herself returning home to care for her ailing mother, convincing her that it's time she move into an assisted living facility. In addition to making this tough decision, she's stuggling with doubts and questions about a long-lost love, who abruptly left her while she was studying in Paris many years ago. She's also missing her father, who died about a year ago & who she had not gotten along with since she was in her early 20's. To further complicate things, her teenage daughter, home from college for the summer, has decided to come & stay with her to help her get her mom's house ready to sell, but instead, finds herself fallling for the local "bad boy" & spending every waking moment with him, against Susannah's better judgment & wishes.

Mothers, wives, daughters and women in general will identify with Susannah as she makes some of life's hardest decisions, trying to find herself and figure out how life got so hard & what has led her to this stage in her life. With so many unanswered questions and difficult choices to be made, Susannah cannot find peace within herself and be happy with her life until she finds the answers she thinks she's looking for.

As she sets out on a journey to find the answers that she needs, we meet her friends & family and even a few enemies, who cause Susannah to look at her life from an entirely different angle and see things she never imagained would be possible. Doubts come into play, as well as more unanswered questions, all leading up to Susannah's "happliy ever after."

The end of the story seemed to wrap up a little too neatly, but I enjoyed the journey of Susannah's self-discovery, and imagine it's a journey most women take around this age. I wouldn't say it's Ms Macomber's best work of fiction, but it's certainly worth the read. Debbie Macomber knows women and writes for them so that everyone can identify with her characters. She writes about today's women experiencing real problems in a real world and her characters can be anyone's friends & family, neighbors and loved ones.

If you're a fan of Debbie Macomber, I'm sure you will enjoy & appreciate SUSANNAH'S GARDEN, but if you've never read a Macomber HC & you're a woman who likes a good book about real issues facing today's women in an entertaining, emotional way without coming off as preachy, you should give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you do like this book & have never read any of Ms. Macomber's prior HC novels, go back & try BETWEEN FRIENDS or THURSDAYS AT EIGHT - - I think these are two of Ms. Macomber's best works of fiction (BETWEEN FRIENDS is one my favorite all-time books!). Looking forward to future HC novels - Keep up the great work!

You will love this book, which is reminiscent of her Cedar Cove series.

Seattle is home to Susannah Nelson, a fifty-ish housewife and mother who finds herself uneasy, at loose ends, and daydreaming about her first love, whom she loved and lost in her small Washington State home town.

When Susanah's mother starts showing serious signs of impending alzheimers, Susannah leaves her husband Joe and two children to scope out the situation. But she has another agenda: She wants to find Jake and see why he left her right after proposing elopement.

Once back in her small town, Susannah encounters all kinds of demons never put to rest, like her uneasy relationship with her dead father; her worry about, but resentment of, her mother, her grief for her long-dead brother, and all the usual detritus of a life lived and sometimes regretted. In the process of moving her mother to a nursing home, searching for Jake, meeting up with old friends and cleaning out her deceased father's study, Susannah uncovers paperwork and other clues that point her to a mystery--one that increasingly looms large.

The mystery is solved in a totally unlikely manner that defies belief, and everything is put right in the end, but that is a Macomber novel. There is a hint in the end that we might be treated to a meeting between Susannah and the wonderful characters from "Blossom Street" and the other "knitting novels," and that's enough to keep this reader interested.

Macomber is what she is, and if you're in the right mood to read her, nobody is more satisfying.

Susannah Nelson goes home to Colville, Washington to visit her mother. Her father, a judge, married to her mother for almost sixty years, died recently. Susannah had had a thorny relationship with her father, who seemingly never recovered from the death of her brother. Susannah, as her only surviving child made the difficult decision to put her mother in an assisted living home. She is then faced with the emotional task of packing up her parent's belongings and selling the house. Her daughter Chrissie shows up unexpectedly to help. Despite the poor shape of the house, her mother's garden is thriving. It is interesting to see the mother-daughter, father-daughter dynamics that have shaped their family history, past and present. Susannah tries valiantly to rectify her objections towards her daughter's new boyfriend. At the same time, she risks her marriage in an attempt to find out what happened to her old boyfriend Jake. An unexpected twist at the end brings Susannah joy after a long summer. A novel that is easy to read, and easy to relate to.

Now fifty Susannah Nelson, wife to her husband Joe who adores her and mother to two wonderful teens (Chrissie and Brian), enjoys teaching fifth graders in Seattle. Not everything is perfect in her life as her dad George recently died and her mom Vivian seems increasingly incapable of taking care of herself. However, what eats at her soul most is recent dreams of her first love from high school Jake Presley.

When Susannah turned eighteen, her parents sent her overseas to school. She said her goodbyes to Jake, her brother Doug and her parents not realizing that she would never see her boyfriend or sibling again. Not long after she left, Doug died in a car crash and Jake vanished. Feeling an obsession to know what happened to Jake, Susannah returns to Colville, Washington allegedly to settle her mother in a nursing home. As friction at home suddenly rises from her college aged daughter turned rebel, Susannah with help from a private investigator begins to learn the truth of what happened over three decades ago that tie Jake's disappearance with Doug's death.

SUSANNAH'S GARDEN is a fascinating character study that makes the case that hiding facts in order to protect a loved one is not necessarily doing that person any favors. Susannah is an intriguing protagonist as her family cherishes her though a revolt by her daughter has begun and she loves teaching yet finds increasingly pondering choices made for her when she was eighteen until she fixates on learning what happened. Though the support cast seems one-dimensional in comparisons to the fully developed deep star, fans of poignant contemporary tales will appreciate this deep look at a middle age adult struggling to come to terms with the pivotal year in her life though over three decades have passed.

Harriet Klausner

Probably 3 1/2 stars, not my favorite in the Blossom Street series. Susannah comes back to her birthplace, Colville, Washington to check on her mother, following the death of her father. Her mother is not doing well and is moved into assisted living. Susannah appears to be going through a mid-life crisis. At the age of 50, she has decided it's necessary to lookup her old boyfriend, Jake. He had mysteriously stopped writing her at the age of 17 while she spent a year in France. She is also happily married for 25 years, but getting "bored" with her husband. I liked most of the story and enjoyed the suspense at the end, as well as the surprise ending that I did not guess. My problem was with not liking the character's personalities, whiney mom, snotty kid, badboy boyfriend, etc.

This book was a very long, boring, lamenting woman who goes on and on and on, over and over and over, about the life that could have been. Her daughter was just as bad as her only more immature. I liked the mom, but her story was sad to read through much of it. I usually like Debbie Macomber, but this one was pretty depressing until chapter 41, and there were only 44 chapters; it is hard to read 41 chapters of depressing. It took forever to finish it, and quite frankly I don't know why I was compelled to do so. I'll keep reading Debbie, but I don't recommend this book. Another thing, if you are looking for this book to be a part of Blossom street, don't! It is mentioned in the last chapter, but none of the characters from the previous books are re-visited in Savannah's Garden. In fact Savannah is only in Seattle briefly at the beginning of the book. The rest of the book is spent in the town of Colville.

When she was eighteen, Susannah Nelson was sent abroad to school. In what she saw as her fathers attempt in dictating her life it effectively separated her from her boyfriend Jake, and she never got to see her brother Doug again who was killed that summer in an automobile accident. After a few short letters, Susanna never heard from or saw Jake and though it hurt at the time, she later met, married a fine man, and raised a family. -----

Now her children are just about grown, she's hitting midlife, and Susannah's marriage seemed stale as her thoughts continually seemed to focus on what `could have been' if her father hadn't interfered in her life and romance with Jake. With her father recently passed on, she had been summoned home sooner than she'd planned when alerted by neighbors and friends that her widowed mother was having difficulties dealing with her loss and living alone. Back in the house and town she'd grown up in Susanna would have to deal with her mother's increasing aging problems, and make some tough decisions regarding her care. Additionally, she would she face the past, discovering new insights into her troubled relationship with her dad, and dealing with a similar issue concerning her rebellious nineteen year old daughter. -----

With girlhood memories resurfacing along with long lost friends, Susannah discovered secrets that revealed not only an unselfish act of love, caring, and protection, but a surprising revelation of a mysterious presence once thought to be a figment of her mothers failing mind. ------

*** What a wonderful read! Macomber writes with heartbreaking realism when dealing with the decisions and choices made in friends and family relationships. She offers beautifully written prose that packs a mountain of emotion into every chapter. Through laughter and through tears, she nails relationships with astounding realism and understanding in this well-paced and heartwarming story, once again solidifying Macomber as a leader in fine woman's literature.

Marilyn Rondeau - RIO, Reviewers International Organization

(Borrowed ebook from the library) Since I discovered Debbie Macomber, I have been enjoying her books. Susannah's Garden didn't disappoint, but it was hard to see it as a "Blossom Street" book until the very end since it didn't have the main cast of characters. The similarity of mother and daughter despite the antagonism, the middle-age crisis of reliving the past, and the elderly mother with memory loss, all seemed realistic. And the book includes a surprise ending

Seldom does so much of a story's plot develop in a graveyard. This is appropriate in Susannah's Garden, however, because in this fast-paced story, Susannah does a lot of digging to unearth truth and burying misperceptions to make peace with her past. Legacies, multigenerational family challenges, faithful friendships, razor-edged evils, secrets, and lies twist and turn toward a love-conquers-all ending. This is a thrilling, engaging novel. Any woman could easily identify with the emotions of one or more characters; I could even see several of the story's actual situations in my own life. I expected the story to have a stronger connection to the garden in the title, but that is seed-size criticism compared with the rich understanding of human emotions gained by reading Debbie Macomber's Susannah's Garden story.

Debbie Macomber keeps getting better and better. This book has so much depth. I liked it as much if not better than The House on Blossom Street and A Good Yarn - and I absolutely loved those books.

Debbie writes such wonderful books that really touch your heart.

Susannah's Garden:

Susannah is 50 years old, married with 2 children but is wondering about the paths not taken. She has been having dreams about her first love, Jake, even though she has a loving husband and it has been 30 years since she has seen or heard from Jake.

She plans a trip to her hometown in Washington to visit her mother, see friends and try to find what happened to Jake. At 18, Susannah's parents had sent her abroad and she lost touch with Jake, and never saw her beloved brother again as he died in an accident while she was away.

While on her journey, Susannah finds things are not always as they seemed, including the poor relationship she had with her father.

Debbie ties everything very nicely together in this must read book.

Susannah Nelson isn't happy. She's tired of teaching, frustrated with her daughter's refusal to be more responsible about her life, worried about her aging mother, and now she's having dreams about her high school boyfriend--dreams she definitely can't share with her husband of twenty-five years. When she learns that her mother is having problems, she drops everything and heads from Seattle to Colville, in eastern Washington--only to find that her mother has lost weight, is having problems with her memory, and has been visited by her long-dead husband.

Susannah never got over her anger at her father for sending her away to boarding school, breaking up her romance with Jake. When Susannah's daughter visits and quickly falls for the neighborhood bad-boy, Susannah doesn't initially recognize that she's echoing her father's behavior, putting her relationship on the same destructive path that she took with her own father. Susannah's mother, Vivian, refuses to see any problems in her own life and resists the idea of moving into an assisted living center--until her dead husband tells her he approves. Meanwhile, Susannah renews her friendship with Carolyn, now owner of the local mill and the town's largest employer. Carolyn has long been divorced and is fighting a totally inappropriate reaction to a man who admits to being a drifter.

Susannah's story reflects the life of many women caught in the middle. On the one hand, aging parents are an increasing concern. On the other, children who are really old enough to be taking care of themselves refuse to accept responsibility and act as if 'fun' were the sole purpose of life. It seems that everything Susannah does only makes things worse. When she spots her daughter's new boyfriend kissing another woman, she tries to warn her daughter--only to have her threaten to turn away. Her mother is equally angry when Susannah recognizes that she needs assisted living, that her growing disorientation and weakness puts her in danger.

Author Debbie Macomber adds a bit of suspense. Someone is breaking into Vivian's home and stealing useless trinkets. Jake's old girlfriend, the girlfriend he had before Susannah, claims she's still in touch with him. And Susannah learns a horrible secret about her father's past. He paid five thousand dollars to Jake's father--and continued to make large withdrawals in cash for years. Could he have been supporting a mistress?

Debbie Macomber is a powerful writer who involves readers in her characters' lives. Susannah makes an interesting protagonist because she seems intent on rushing to destruction. Her dreams of her high school boyfriend threaten to destroy a marriage of twenty-five years. It's too late for her to recover from her over-the-top anger at her late father, but she can't seem to prevent herself from following the same destructive path with her daughter. Her impatience with her mother further alienates her from everyone who is most important to her.

It's hard to put down a Debbie Macomber book and SUSANNAH'S GARDEN is no exception. I didn't especially like Susannah. She was too quick to judge others, too blind to her own flaws. But these very flaws were what makes her an interesting character. The end of the story left several important moral questions unanswered. Was Susannah's husband right in insisting that Susannah not complete her promise to Troy? Is Carolyn's solution to the dilemma created by Dave the wanderer correct? Rather than wrapping things up neatly, Macomber chose to leave these questions to the reader--perhaps recognizing that some problems don't have easy answers and that real people have to make choices without the certainty of absolute moral correctness.

Susannah's Garden had so much potential. There was so much going on Susannah's dealing with the lingering issues with her father who died recently who was dictorial and distant who sent her away from home to get her away from her boyfriend Jake and wouldn't let her come home when her brother was killed in a car accident. Its also becoming clear that her mother Vivan is no longer able to care for herself and Susannah must deal with the painful decision to put her mother in assisted living and decide what to do with her childhood home and memories. Susannah's clearly having a midlife crisis has began dreaming about Jake and the "what ifs" despite the fact she's married with two almost grown children. Susannah decides to go home to Colville to deal with her mother. Her daughter Chrissie shows up and begins dating a boy Susannah doesn't approve off and Susannah finds herself in her father's position. It all had the set up to being really good as Susannah worked throught all of the issues but the author fails in the execution of dealing with the issues and ending the book. Spoilers follow. The extent that Susannah went to search for Jake without ever really considering the fact she was putting her own marriage at risk or what it might do to her husband or kids made it really difficult to be rooting for Susannah. Not that it really mattered because when Susannah's husband did find out Susannah hired a PI to hunt down her ex-boyfriend they have one small argument on the phone and...that's it. That's it? One argument on the phone? Susannah makes a comment later that they've worked everything out without to the reader how that happened. After all the build up to it and there's no fallout? No real showing Susannah of what her actions had done? I would have liked even just one scene where Susannah worried that she might have just cost herself her marriage. Then there's the learning of what really happened to Jake..and what really happened to her brother Doug. Jake was killed in the car accident instead of her brother Doug who assumed his identy and had been hiding out for decades from the police who wanted him for a federal crime he had return to Colville pretending to be someone else and dating her Susannah's friend. Instead of coming up with a way to either clear Doug of all the charges or some normal resoltion instead the author decides to not do any of these things but just keep Doug leaving under his assumed identy including not telling his mother that he's alive. Sure Vivan met him but has assumed in her altmizer's mind that he's the ghost of her dead husband. That's a solution? All I could think was how cruel what was? Never let the poor woman know her son is alive? What about Jake's father who doesn't even know his son is dead? It just seem all wrong to me. Not to mention the odds of dodging the government for the rest of his life. The same with Susannah's decision to pay off her daughter's boyfriend (like her father had done with Jake) to get him out of her life. Sure the boyfriend's a two timing lowlife who offered the deal to Susannah but...Susannah actually pays him? And this is the solution to get him out of Chrissie's life? How about Chrissie finding out her boyfriend's a lowlife? Maybe even learn something from the experience or realize she deserves a lot more from a boyfriend or the satasfication that comes from kicking the lowlife to the curb? Instead the author creates solutions for the problems that aren't solutions at all because no one learns any lessons from their actions. That really's sad because it could have been a really good book.

Never having read Macomber before, I picked up Susannah with interest, hoping to discover the secret of her popularity. While the premise of this book is a promising one, it never reached it's potential. Susannah as a character is oh so nice, and for a woman in her 50's, remarkably impetuous and self-absorbed. Her husband Joe is incredibly mild mannered and forebearing, and daughter Chrissy, evidently meant to be charmingly naive and innocent, comes across as petulant and spoiled. As so often happens with writers who turn out book after book, Macomber annoyingly depends too much on favorite phrases (e.g., he "wound his arm around her waist"). Less than halfway through this story, its central "mystery" became transparently predictable, and in the final 30 pages, all the pieces fell conveniently into their happy ending places.
On the positive side, Macomber did a terrific job portraying the insidiousness of Alzheimer's. Perhaps her earlier novels are more skillfully written.

I read this book after listening to an inspiring account from the author regarding her life as a writer. I thought that perhaps I, too, might be inspired to write "Christian Romance Novels". I know that Macomber has a large, loyal and enthusiastic readership that has helped her maintain her position as a Number 1 Bestseller a la the New York Times, so I will just state that this is not my "kind" of reading, and I cant envisage writing in the same genre.

Susannah's Garden was a pleasant way to spend a few hours on the plane. Although it's lightweight reading and the very mild mystery had an obvious solution, I could relate to the main character. Having dealt with a mother afflicted with senile dementia, I found the tug of war between Susannah and her mother very realistic. The only thing I questioned was the likelihood of a woman who often didn't recognize family members having the capacity to develop a love interest with an octogenarian boyfriend (I kept imagining, "Who are you?" "I'm George, your boyfriend." "Who?"). The immaturity of Chrissie and Susannah's frustration with her were also captured nicely. The long-suffering Joe seemed a little too good to be true, but hey, don't we all wish for a husband like him. Nice, feel-good tale.

This story captivated me right from the outset, as Vivian copes with age-related loss of memory. Her scenes are tenderly drawn in sensitively described and insightful detail, and her problem is very realistically portrayed.

As Susannah packs up her childhood home and prepares to move Vivian into an assisted living apartment, she uncovers clues to her past concerning the mysteries of her brother's death and whereabouts of her long-lost high-school sweetheart. With just the right blend of drama, action, suspense and resolution of family issues, this enjoyable story is very uplifting and thought-provoking, providing reflections for my own midlife crisises. It is easily read within a couple of hours, and there is a subtle tie-in to the Blossom Street books, leaving the possibility that these likable characters may reappear in subsequent books in that series.

I read the mixed reviews and I think what makes a difference is where you are at in your own life. I was the same age as Susannahs character when I read this book so I could really relate and I also had a past that was hard to let go of. I had been away from my old classmates for many years and the part in the book where the gals got together and had wine and talked about the past and what they would do different really hit home for me. After reading the book I finally said yes when I was invited to get together with some old classmates from 30 years ago and I had the best time of my life; I would have never gone had it not been for this book. It really makes a difference at what stage of life you at when you read a particular story. So Debbie, please take the negative feedback with a grain of salt and know that you can't please everyone and keep up the great stories. I also get tired of predictable endings and this one took me by surprise which made it so much better. My main reason for reading these books is to take me out of reality for a few hours a night to unwind and Debbie does a great job of helping me with that. Thank you for your great stories and how much you have influenced my life with so many of your heart warming ideas you share with your readers. BTW; I am an avid prayer shawl stitcher and I have gotten all 15 ladies in my group reading your books.

This was a good story that moved at a fast pace and kept the pages turning. Perfect when you need to get things off your mind and lose yourself in someone else and their difficulties. I chose it to compare the story with my own family member who will need assisted living very soon. It was helpful to learn the similarities and encouraging that things might just work out well with a little patience. I did not expect to be also reading a very interesting mystery ! It was a surprise and a great escape. Macomber always places a life lesson in her stories and this one has more than a couple. Worth the read.

I usually love Debbie Macomber's books but this one was bad. I disliked Susannah - a whiney, pathetic woman. Her daughter and her drama were way overblown. Other than the mother and her husband Joe, I thought the characters were not very moral people. I hope the rest of the Blossom Street series is better than this one!

I enjoy Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street stories. They provide a refreshing counterpoint to some of the other types of books I typically read. And I love their attractive cover illustrations. So when I picked up this book I looked forward to another pleasant read. But I have found myself by turns irritated at the simplistic characters, annoyed by the silly dialog, and disgusted with the trivial storyline. A fifty-year-old woman who is still hung up on her high school sweetheart is a ridiculous figure. The tortured passion of Carolyn and Dave is so Romance Novel-ish that it is laughable. And the bratty daughter is a selfish little twit.

I'm sorry I spent money on this paperback. Ms. Macomber did not even half-try to write a decent book. She owes more to her fans.

Every now and then I indulge in a guilty pleasure, sometimes taking in a contemporary novel that's written on the light side. I've read two of Debbie Macomber's previous novels, and while I didn't find them that challenging or stimulating, they were good for several hours of mindless entertainment, and certainly better than turning on the television.

Susannah lives near Seattle, and has what can be considered a good life -- she's married to a successful dentist, has two nearly grown children, a nice home, and a career as a teacher. Summer break is approaching and Susannah is going to return to the hometown where she grew up in Eastern Washington. A personal crisis is threatening to overturn her carefully arranged life.

Susannah's mother, Vivian, is clearly not well after the death of her husband, the local judge. George Leary was a strict man, running his family pretty much as he did his courtroom, even after a tragic accident killed his only son, Doug. That loss affected everyone in the family, especially Susannah, who was away finishing up her schooling in France. The loss of her brother hit her hard, and Susannah struggled not only with death, but the coldness from her father, and her mother's own manipulative nature. Now Vivian seems to be unable to cope with being a widow, and has been found wandering alone in the streets, confused, and accusing her neighbors and housekeeper of theft and spying on her.

Now Susannah has to travel to Colville, and try to persuade her mother that it might be best if she entered an 'assisted living' arrangement. And Vivian, with all of the toughness of an elderly person, is equally determined to stay in her own home, thank you. Once Susannah arrives at her mother's home, a not-too-subtle war begins, with both sides focused on what they want.

To complicate matters further, Susannah is finding herself thinking about her high-school sweetheart, Jake Priestly, who vanished soon after her brother died. More annoying still, there's her daughter, Chrissie, home from college from the summer and frustrated by the lack of a boyfriend, a job, and turned into the family maid-of-all-work for her brother and father. Chrissie in turn, comes to Colville to 'help' her mother with Vivian, and getting the place tidying, but soon enough she's off having a good time with one of the local bad boys.

As Susannah struggles to make sense of things and get her mother settled, we encounter old friends, possible ghosts, family secrets and enough self-talk and musing and slamming doors to fill at least a week of soap-operas. Susannah, despite her flurrying about, is more of a passive spectator throughout the book, and muddying things as she goes about.

This is the third book that I've read by Macomber, and I suspect that it will be my last. I was only interested in the Blossom Street novels (there have been two published, and a third one has just been released in hardcover) because there was knitting and cats involved, two of my pet interests. And several of the characters in the two novels had been through similar experiences that I had been.

But here, Susannah is wandering through life with blinkers on, not realizing just how good she's got things, and her mother Vivian is a figure of sympathy as well as being a harridan. Chrissie is a brat, and other characters are simple one notes. In short, I cared little for anyone in the novel as they go through their middle class lives without realizing that most things are pretty messy at times.

Macomber's writing style is of the sort best described as 'women's fiction;' simplistic and with an underlaying moralizing tone. Most of the time, I can put up with that. Sadly, the writing is pretty simplistic too -- you're not going to find any great flights of fancy or deep thought here. It's pure vanilla, without anything in here to offend anyone -- unless you actually live the real world.

The only thing that saves this one from a one or two-star rating is that the main character is a middle aged woman, which was appealing in our youth-obsessed culture. But Macomber makes Susannah such a bland woman that I found it very hard to connect with her, or care about her problems.

Overall, three stars and a not recommended, unless you're a die-hard fan of Macomber. I say skip it, and try for someone else. Better yet, just leave the book on the shelf or get it from the library. At the end of the paperback release, there is an excerpt from Macomber's next book, Back to Blossom Street, which looks to have Susannah return as a character to an earlier series.

Eek.

This story takes a long look at how an individual's past emotional attachments can forever affect their personal memories of others. Their perspective can be right or wrong and until they sort out the truth the emotional aspect cannot be sorted out.

It is a long and twisted road that Susannah has to travel in this book. After traveling this road she has a much clearer view of her currant relationships as well.

This was a challenging book to finish. I cannot believe that this book was written by a woman author in the 21st century. (It resembled a novel that was written by a man whom wanted to keep women under his thumb. Yuck.) The main character was spineless...she accepted ungracious and rude behavior from her whining, insolent daughter and boring chauvenistic husband. As a 62 year-old woman, I was disappointed to read a porttrayal of such weak, ineffective characters. I can honestly say I will never be inclined to read another of this author's novels, because the development and execution of the women characters was truly embarrassing. Also, just from an aesthetic point of view, the audio version has weird telephone conversation sounds effects. Really a bad imitation of a phone tone. All in all, both print and audio are bad.

A wonderful story about a family with many problems, but brought together with their shared values in Cedar Cove. Debbie Macomber is masterful in writing this novel weaving the character's pasts with the present. I highly recommend this book.

The writing in this book was almost forced, like something was just put down to get the story out. I admit I couldn't get very far along, but there just wasn't a flow of the words and this made it difficult to stay with the story. The characters and their circmstances were cliches and I felt like I knew what would be said next (as you do with a bad sitcom). Perhaps it improved as it progressed but I just wasn't interested enough to find out.

I have read the entire "Blossom Street" series, and loved every book. Start by reading the books in sequence; you won't be disappointed. Debbie Macomber developed rich characters, who reappear in the subsequent books. Some of the characters warranted their own books/stories. I especially liked "A Turn in the Road." Since completing my reading of the series, I feel I'm lost without this new family I've been involved with. The books are easy reads and flew by too fast. Loved this series, including Susannah's Garden!

Not a terrible book, but the ending is pretty predictable, though they try to make it seem like some big shock. And the more the book went on, the less I liked Susannah - she purposely puts her marriage at risk for some dumb boy she dated in high school? Then she keeps a bunch of secrets from her husband, handles her daughter Chrissie's issues badly, then suddenly everything is wrapped up, and Susannah gets what she wants-- then randomly decides to open a flower shop to segway into the next book. I do feel that the author did a good job portraying the elderly mom Vivian. But I definitely don't plan to read any more of this series.

It took me a few chapters to get involved in this book however, Debbie Macomber has done it once again. This book goes from one end of the spectrum to the other. Wether it is family or friends she shows so much emotion of lifes trials and tribulations. If your ready for a roller coaster of a book you will enjoy this one. I don't think my review will say it even close enough but I think you should give this book a try. Now I am going for Back On Blossom Street to see how this one is. See you all in the future.

This book hits home for me as my mom has been in a nursing home for seven years. Ms. Macomber has hit the nail on the head as the role reversal scenes play themselves out. I hope those who will be going through that phase of life will take notes and be prepared for it. It's not an easy task but it a rewarding one. Thank you, Ms. Macomber.

Susannah struggles with her relationships with her mother, Vivian and daughter, Chrissie, while trying to deal with her doubts about her marriage, and unresolved issues with her deceased father and brother. This is a true slice of life, and we agonize with Susannah over her mother's frailty, and Chrissie's determined and perhaps self-destructive rebelliousness. Mastering her past and her relationships, supported by friend Carolyn and husband Joe, Susannah grows into her stage of life, blooming with new plans and contentment.

Susannah's realization that her perception of her youth and actual circumstances closely resembled her current situation with her own daughter. Susannah learned that the love in her present life is far more important than the path not taken in the past.

I was HORRIBLY disappointed in this book. I look forward to Debbie Macomber books because she has a gift for presenting everyday problems of likeable people and allowing these people to solve them realistically.

Not this time. Chrissie was a pain in the neck, and the way Susannah handled her relationship with her daughter (allowing her to whine and blackmail her) almost forced me to stop listening to the book in the mddle. Her mother's sudden change of heart concerning her move to assisted living was almost laughable, except that this is a very real problem among people of my generation and I would have liked to have read a little more believable solution.

There is hope, however. Susannah is buying a flower shop on Blossom Street in Seattle. Could it be that she and Lydia Hoffman (The Shop on Blossom Street and A Good Yarn) will meet and appear together in a future publication? If so, I hope it's better than Susannah's Garden.

I enjoyed this book immensely. As a new Debbie Macomber fan, this was a wonderful introduction for me. I found it a very realistic book, as the condition of Susannah's aging Mom is similar to my own. I identified with lots of the story and loved the sweet way the book ends. I heartily recommend it.

I absolutely loved listening to this book on CD. I have so little time to read these days, so it was great, being able to follow along via CD, in my car each day; as I went to and from work.
The story itself was great and I could definitely identify with the main character, Susannah. The only thing that turned me off, was the narrator's take on doing male voices. It had a 'scary' tone to it. At times, the voices she used for the different characters would overlap; it was as if she was getting confused as to which character she was supposed to be. Other than that, I would definitely purchase another book on CD.

I really enjoyed this book. I have been a fan of Debbie's for a very long time. For once, this story was based upon a 50 year old woman taking care of her elderly mother. I am currenly in the same situation and it was nice to read about realistic life issues. I read anything she publishes.

This book was mystery of sorts lots of questions and twists. A great build up toward the end. Glad that Susannah's marriage was rekindled and that her misgivings regarding her father were cleared up and she knew the truth.

I throughly enjoyed the first three Debbie McComber books that I read...The first in the Ceder Cove series, The Shop on Blossom Street and A Good Yarn; however I found Susannah's Garden to be a bit trite. The title of her latest book was what drew me to it, but there was very little mention of gardens or gardening, and while I did like the characters and had empathy for Susannah and Vivian, and wish that the character of Vivian had more prominence in the story. I did enjoy the mystery aspect of the book, but the ending wraps up little too nicely.

That said, the book is enjoyable for a rainy day (as we've been having many of in New England!) with a good cuppa tea! Borrow it from the library unless you are a big McComber fan. Then you will probably want to run out and buy it to add to your collection.

I like that Debbie Macomber weaves her books about multiple characters but I couldn't wait for this book to end. It was too drawn out, once the ground work was laid I felt it was full of fillers before pieces started falling together.

Not the best book I've read, certainly not the worst. I thought the characters were a little hard to follow and I knew what the ending would be (for the most part) by about the halfway point of the book. I kept saying I didn't like the book, but I didn't want to put it down, either.

This is the only Debbie Macomber book I've ever read, and I wondered what the attraction was. I thought it might be interesting for me because I am facing similar issues with an elderly parent, but this book was painful. The dialogue is ludicrous, situations contrived, and the characters are such twits! Just as an example, anyone who would keep living in a house that they knew was being burglarized by someone who seemed to have ready access is just crazy or stupid. I forced myself to finish the book, giving it full benefit of the doubt, and the ending was even more far-fetched than the rest.

Debbie Macomber is becoming one of my favorite authors. Again, I picked up a book of hers at a thrift store, and couldn't put it down. I can totally see the plot in this book happening to someone. This is a light read, that is good before you go to bed. What a great story!

I enjoyed reading this book as it brought me back to someone with a link to Blossom Street. I feel as though I know all the people from the yarn shop on Blossom Street and maybe being a knitter myself may have something to do with this. I am hoping that Debbie Macomber will write another series or book involving all these characters, it was such comforting reading and books you could certainly curl up with.

Sincerely,
Barbara Montague-Myrick

I throughly enjoyed the first three Debbie McComber books that I read...The first in the Ceder Cove series, The Shop on Blossom Street and A Good Yarn; however I found Susannah's Garden to be a bit trite. The title of her latest book was what drew me to it, but there was very little mention of gardens or gardening, and while I did like the characters and had empathy for Susannah and Vivian, and wish that the character of Vivian had more prominence in the story. I did enjoy the mystery aspect of the book, but the ending wraps up little too nicely.

That said, the book is enjoyable for a rainy day (as we've been having many of in New England!) with a good cuppa tea! Borrow it from the library unless you are a big McComber fan. Then you will probably want to run out and buy it to add to your collection.

I like that Debbie Macomber weaves her books about multiple characters but I couldn't wait for this book to end. It was too drawn out, once the ground work was laid I felt it was full of fillers before pieces started falling together.

Not the best book I've read, certainly not the worst. I thought the characters were a little hard to follow and I knew what the ending would be (for the most part) by about the halfway point of the book. I kept saying I didn't like the book, but I didn't want to put it down, either.

This is the only Debbie Macomber book I've ever read, and I wondered what the attraction was. I thought it might be interesting for me because I am facing similar issues with an elderly parent, but this book was painful. The dialogue is ludicrous, situations contrived, and the characters are such twits! Just as an example, anyone who would keep living in a house that they knew was being burglarized by someone who seemed to have ready access is just crazy or stupid. I forced myself to finish the book, giving it full benefit of the doubt, and the ending was even more far-fetched than the rest.

Debbie Macomber is becoming one of my favorite authors. Again, I picked up a book of hers at a thrift store, and couldn't put it down. I can totally see the plot in this book happening to someone. This is a light read, that is good before you go to bed. What a great story!

I enjoyed reading this book as it brought me back to someone with a link to Blossom Street. I feel as though I know all the people from the yarn shop on Blossom Street and maybe being a knitter myself may have something to do with this. I am hoping that Debbie Macomber will write another series or book involving all these characters, it was such comforting reading and books you could certainly curl up with.

Sincerely,
Barbara Montague-Myrick

I have been an avid fan of Debbie Macomber since she wrote her first book. I am sorry to say I did not get into this one. The characters were not very believable and I really didn't care what happened to any of them. The ending was wrapped up a little too quickly and "they lived happily ever after"...sorry..I wish I would have just checked this out of the library.

I love Debbie Macomber...quick, feel-good reads. Out of the books I've read that she's authored, though, have to say was a bit disappointed in this one. Seems that she was trying her hand at mystery writing, but it wasn't really believable. She certainly has better books out there.

I am becoming addicted to Debbie's books. She combines characters very well in each of her books. You get right into each characters lives. From one book to the next in a series, she keeps you updated on all previous characters. I love this type of series. I will keep reading her books for a long time.

This is the first book by this author that I have read, and I was very disappointed. The characters were not at all believeable, and the plot twists were so far fetched, it was almost laughable. Chrissie was the biggest spoiled brat I could ever imagine, and her mother was a dishrag with no backbone and not a lick of common sense. I couldn't believe that she went along with Troy's idea so that he would leave her daughter alone. I did feel sorry for Vivian who never knew that her son was alive. As an earlier reviewer said, it would have been beneficial to have a story about having to put a parent in a assisted living facility that actually would have been a real story, since many people are dealing with that issue.