I have waited almost three years to finally get to reading this series by Debbie Macomber. My mother had open heart surgery almost three years ago and it was a very difficult road, and when she was in a nursing home for rehabilitation, I visited one evening and she had the T.V. on and I caught the tail end of a show that grabbed my attention. I watched the credits roll and saw that the show was based on the “Cedar Cove” series of books by Debbie Macomber. I was thrilled! We don’t have T.V. at our house, by choice, and I would much rather read a book, so I was on a mission, from that point on, to obtain the entire series, which I did last Spring, and I just finished reading 16 Lighthouse Road, the first book of the series, and the first book I read in 2017.

So, here’s what I thought. I recently was talking with a couple of ladies I know who love to read as much as I do, and one of them mentioned a book that she had begun to read but couldn’t finish because it reminded her too much of a soap opera, and that was my thought as I was reading this book. A soap opera in the fact that it follows the lives of many characters with everyday, real life struggles like most people in the current era; characters who all live in a small town and know one another and one another’s business. However, unlike a soap opera, it’s not the same people struggling with the exact same issues over and over again, and some of these characters actually work to resolve their problems.

I love the characters and Ms. Macomber did a great job of creating characters who grab your heart and make you care about them and want to see them rise above their struggles to find happiness, love, success, God, whatever it is they are looking for. I did not find the book so soap opera like that I’m not interested in reading the rest of the series. As a matter of fact, I care about these characters and want to see what happens in their lives and if the ones I’m routing for the most find love and happiness that requires work (for that is what is real).

I will say, however, that I was quite disappointed to find that this book had some profanity and one sexually explicit scene, though it was between a husband and wife and was a relatively short scene. I don’t believe that a Christian author has to include those things in their books. I believe it is a compromise and that they lose some integrity in doing so. Those are my personal thoughts and beliefs. I’ve read that Debbie Macomber is a Christian, but I noted that the book was not published by a Christian publisher and I’m sure the publisher wanted Ms. Macomber to include such things and she complied.

I completely understand Ms. Macomber’s desire to publish with a mainstream publishing company because I, too, prefer to not have my writing specifically labeled “Christian” because that label seems to carry a negative connotation in secular society and will keep someone from reading such a book because they don’t want to read a book that’s “preachy”. Ms. Macomber’s book is not preachy and does not speak of God, although it does include at least one character involved in church and has several characters with good, strong morals. The book also includes characters who seem to have no scruples. It’s the kind of book that all readers can relate to because each reader should be able to relate to at least one character in the story.

I do look forward to reading the rest of the Cedar Cove series because some of these characters have already become like dear friends and I wish them well.

However, I will be reading other books in between the books in this series because this is a large series — something like 14 books, and my TBR list is MASSIVE.