The Shop on Blossom Street

Cancer survivor Lydia Hoffman opens a yarn shop on Blossom Street. In order to attract customers, she decides to hold knitting classes, with a baby blanket being the first project. Three people sign up, all with different reasons for being there. Unhappily married Jacqueline Donovan dislikes her new pregnant daughter-in-law, Tammie Lee, but decides to knit the baby blanket to show her son she is making an effort to accept his new wife. Carol Girard desperately wants a baby, but has been unable to conceive and is about to undergo her third and final IVF procedure. When she sees the sign for knitting a baby blanket, she takes it as a good omen and joins the class. Alix Townsend had a rough upbringing, has had a bit of trouble with the show more law, and is living from paycheck to paycheck. Although she can barely afford it, she decides to sign up for the knitting classes because she can donate the blanket to charity and use it against her court ordered community service hours. Lydia is a bit concerned that these totally different women won't get along, but they all become close in ways none of them imagined.

"The Shop on Blossom Street" was a funny, but light read, what I call cotton candy for the brain. Of the four characters I liked Lydia and Alix the best. Lydia's troubled relationship with her sister and the affect the cancer has had on her life, especially in her relationships, were interesting. The story of Alix's troubled childhood makes her a sympathetic character and readers will want her to succeed in her relationship with youth minister Jordan Turner. Carol's struggle to have a child is heartbreaking, although I found her character to be a bit bland. I found Jacqueline to be a stereotypical rich, shallow person at first, concerned only with her standing in society, but her character grew on me by the end of the book.

Debbie Macomber's story telling ability is her strong point. She creates characters that you care about and readers will eagerly turn the pages to find out what happens to them. Unfortunately at times she resorts to cliched characters like Jacqueline, which is a shame when the other three characters are so believable and likable. Some of the plots in this book are also cliched and one particular plot, involving Alix and her roommate, was too convenient and totally unbelievable.

"The Shop on Blossom Street" is a nice but fluffy read. show less

Sometimes, after reading a long historical novel fraught with disasters or a dark detective tale -- never mind the news of the day -- you just need a light and enjoyable story. In just such a mood I picked up The Shop on Blossom Street, the first of Macomber's series about a Seattle yarn shop. Since my daughters are knitters, my most recent (far too long ago) trip to Seattle included stops in quite a few yarn shops, so I was familiar with this milieu. (I don't knit, but I like to look at all the colors.)
What I enjoy about Macomber's books, of which I've read two or three a year for the past few years, is that she always injects a healthy dose of reality into the romance. In this case, her 30-ish protagonist is a two-time cancer survivor show more who has recently lost her father. Her life has been on hold for far too much of the time since her first diagnosis at age 16, and she takes a giant leap in opening a yarn shop in a transitional urban neighborhood. To get things going, she offers a knitting class on making a baby blanket. The three women who sign up all have different reasons for wanting to make one. One is a young married woman with fertility problems, desperate for a baby; one is a society matron whose only son's "unsuitable" wife has just announced her pregnancy; and one is a street-smart, prickly video store clerk who will donate the blanket to the Linus Project as part of her court-mandated community service hours. The ways these women interact, the friendship they find, and how they help solve each other's problems in surprising ways make for a quite enjoyable read. Yes, they find romance too, but it seems that the community of women is the main focus of the book. The Seattle setting is evocative without being a travelogue. I'll probably pick up the next in the series the next time I need a break. Recommended for people who like this kind of book. show less

Three women with very different lives and problems meet and become unlikely friends through a knitting class at a new local yarn shop.
Part sweet (not at all racy) romance, part girl-friends-being-strong-for-each-other feel-good story, this was a comfy, easy read and a re-read for me. I would have liked...more?...in most aspect of the book: each woman's story could have been fleshed out better, the endings all seemed a little too pat. And also in some places I would have liked a little less, mostly in the needed-more-editing department, as some of the characters' thoughts and feelings were rehashed a few times too many. I'm also not a huge fan of Christian romance themes, and although this one only skated round the hint of a God-y plot, show more I still balked a bit at how close one storyline came to Youth Pastor Falls for and Then Saves Poor Bad-Girl Godless Uncouth Woman. (Just, ew.) Despite all of this, I still enjoyed it, which may come down the nostalgia of a re-read. *shrug* show less

Lydia Hoffman opened her little yarn shop on Blossom Street in Seattle with the hopes and fears of a cancer survivor. Her first knitting class for beginners attracts three women, Jacqueline Donovan wants to knit something for her grandchild in an effort to makeup with her daughter-in-law. Carol Girard is making the baby blanket filled with her desires for a child of her own. And Alix Townsend is knitting her blanket as a part of a court-ordered community service project. During the course of the lessons these women begin to have a profound difference in each other's lives.

I'm a lifelong knitter and lover of women's literature so I fully expected to love this book. But for me it just didn't work. I found the characters to be rather flat, show more they didn't affect me. And the relationships they built were predictable. I knew the ending to each story early in the book. I don't think I will be reading any of the others in the series. show less

When Lydia Hoffman, a cancer survivor and owner of A Good Yarn, starts a knitting class for her patrons, she forms a special friendship and bond with three extraordinary women--Jacqueline, Carol, and Alix--and together they share laughter, heartbreak, and dreams.

Lydia is in remission from cancer, is missing her recently deceased father, and decides to finally live her life. She starts a yarn store on a street under construction. To build business, she starts a knitting class. Only 3 women join. They are so different from each other - from a young felon knitting away her community service hours to a rich socialite knitting for a new grand-baby to a woman trying desperately to conceive a child, that Lydia despairs of ever building the group up. Everyone eventually becomes friends (spoiler-not-spoiler).

This is my first foray into the drama section of chick lit. It wasn't bad. But unfortunately, that means I can't really compare it to other books in the genre. On the plus side, it was well written show more and engaging. I cared about the characters. I did not miss the smut of the romance novels I had been reading lately. It was overall fairly refreshing, but that might just be the difference in genres. show less

This is the story of four women: Lydia, a cancer survivor who opens a yarn store, and her first three customers/students, Jacqueline, a society matron, Carol, a business woman trying to get pregnant, and wild-child Alix. The book takes us through their lives and how being in a knitting group together changes them.

This was, by far, the most predictable, formulaic book I've ever read. As soon as every woman's story, and those of supporting characters, was laid out, I knew exactly what was going to happen with each main character, and, sadly, I was right.

It's a fine story if you're looking for a comfortable, female-centric feel-good novel. But don't come to this looking for any depth. It's very simply a light, happily-ever-after.

As a show more yarn-crafter, and member of my own crafting group, I wanted to love this book. I'm a little sad that I didn't. show less