Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Book ~ "Summer in a Small Town: Welcome to Icicle Falls/Treasure Beach" (2012) Sheila Roberts and Emilie Richards

From Goodreads ~ Two unforgettable towns, two touching stories ...

Welcome to Icicle Falls by Sheila Roberts

It's the 1960s and Muriel loves the beautiful town of Icicle Falls, Washington. Life is good, except that her father expects her to run Sweet Dreams, the family chocolate company, when he retires. But she has sweet dreams of her own, dreams about a handsome stranger who comes to town.

Decades later, Cass Wilkes lands in Icicle Falls as a single mom with little money. But this small town has a way of giving people second chances they don't expect!

Treasure Beach by Emilie Richards

Life on Happiness Key is lonely for eleven-year-old Olivia Symington, so when she finds a message in a bottle on Treasure Beach, her interest is piqued. Someone needs help and she knows what that's like. Maybe by helping she can even find a friend.

The women of Happiness Key are worried about Olivia and her fascination with the message. But they know how isolated she feels, so they set out to help her find the mystery correspondent - and maybe a little happiness of her own along the way.

There are two short stories in this book.   

Welcome to Icicle Falls is an introduction to Roberts' Icicle Falls series.  It is the sixth book I've read by this author (and the fifth the Icicle Falls series that I've read) and I liked it.  It is written in an interesting style ... Muriel and Dot are narrators and at times they are talking to you AND to each other.  Muriel tells of when she was a teenager growing up in Icicle Falls.  She had to work in her dad's chocolate company while her friends had a fun summer off.  A stranger arrives in town on a motorcycle and catches her eye.  Dot tells the story of Cass, a single mom of three, who lands in town when her car breaks down, never leaves and makes a new life there.

Treasure Beach tells the story of eleven-year-old Olivia whose best friend has just moved from their small town.  Plus her mother is dead and her father is in prison and she's living with her grandmother.  She finds a bottle one day at the beach with a message from someone who is looking for help and she sets out to find out who it is. This is part of the Happiness Key series, which I haven't read.

It's a quick read with feel-good stories.

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