HEARTS DIVIDED

Author: Debbie Macomber, Katherine Stone & Lois Faye Dyer ISBN: 0778322122 2/2006 ANTHOLOGY Publisher: MIRA

Grandmothers know best...especially these three grandmothers, all soldiers' brides. Their generation lived through war and peace, good times and bad, love and loss. 5-B Poppy Lane by Debbie Macomber All her life, Ruth Shelton has loved visiting her grandmother in Cedar Cove, Washington. Now Ruth comes to ask advice about her own romance with a soldier--and discovers a secret in her grandmother's past. The Apple Orchard by Katherine Stone Clara MacKenzie's granddaughter Elizabeth arrives at Clara's Oregon farm needing comfort. That's exactly what Clara offers--and so does a childhood friend named Nick Lawton. But Nick wants to offer Elizabeth more than comfort. More than friendship... Liberty Hall by Lois Faye Dyer When Professor Chloe Abbott finds herself caught up in a troublesome mystery, she turns to her grandmother. She needs Winifred's expertise as a wartime code breaker. She doesn't need suggestions about her love life--all of which involve ex-marine Jake Morrissey!

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

HEARTS DIVIDED is anthology of three short stories by Debbie Macomber, Katherine Stone and Lois Faye Dyer. If you're a fan of any or all of these great women authors, you will enjoy their short stories.

The first short story is 5-B Poppy Lane by Debbie Macomber. This story is my favorite one in the anthology. We are introduced to Ruth, who decided to send a Christmas card to a soldier overseas. Only what she didn't expect was for the soldier to write back to her, and from there have it grow into a long distance relationship. When the two of them meet, they both know what they have is something special, but Ruth has issues that are standing in the way of them marrying. When Ruth introduces Paul to her grandmother, Helen, the story gets very interesting. Helen has been hiding a secret from her family, and when Ruth and Paul visit her at her house, she sits down and starts telling them about her wartime love and loss. What a story is it!! Everything in 5-B Poppy Lane just fits together. You know that Ruth and Paul are destined to be together, and Helen needs to clear her conscience and let her family know about her past. It's a story of love—finding it, losing it, and relishing in it.

The next story in HEARTS DIVIDED is Liberty Hall by Lois Faye Dyer. In my opinion, it's more of a suspense story with a dash of romance in it. My favorite part of this story is that Winifred, Chloe's grandmother, was a wartime code breaker. In the end, she was the one who helped Chloe and ex-marine Jake figure out who was stalking her and why. Don't you love it when the hero of the story is an 80'ish year old grandmother?

The last story is The Apple Orchard by Katherine Stone. This story was the one that reminded me of my own grandmother. I just wanted to hug Clara and have her make me some lemonade and talk. Clara lost her husband a couple of months earlier and is in mourning. Her young friend, Nick, a sort of lost soul who she helped nurture, is back in town and looking after her. Nick once helped Clara's granddaughter, Elizabeth, when she was very small, but his memory of her and the woman that she is now haunts his dreams. When Elizabeth comes into town to seek comfort from her grandmother for the betrayal of her former fiancé, it's Nick who is really there to comfort her. Once there, Elizabeth and Nick read her grandfather's old love letters when he was a soldier. As Nick gets more comfortable around Elizabeth, he confides in her that Clara isn't able to see very well anymore, and that they need to take her to the doctor. As with any good story, you can be sure that there's a very happy ending!

I believe I like HEARTS DIVIDED just because I love the relationships between the grandmothers and granddaughters. I was close to my own grandmother and while reading the three short stories, memories of conversations I had with her before she passed kept coming into my mind. I hope that while reading HEARTS DIVIDED, you will experience something like that, too.

Julie Kornhausl