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| Original Cover |
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| My own copy |
The blurb:
Part one in a feel-good festive romantic serial from bestselling author
Rebecca Raisin!
Clio Winters is finally fulfilling her childhood dream of renovating the
gorgeous old Cedarwood Lodge in Evergreen. Turning it into the perfect
destination for big celebrations, weddings and parties has brought her back
home, but Cedarwood Lodge is in need of a lot of tender loving care.
Perhaps all the work will be the perfect distraction from the real
reason she had to leave her glamorous New York life behind.
Will coming home be the best decision of her life… or her biggest
regret?
Cedarwood Lodge is a delectable romance told in
three parts - following Clio Winters journey back to her hometown of Evergreen.
This is Part One.
My Opinion:
*Book provided by the publisher in
exchange for an honest review*
Celebrations
and Confetti is the first book of Rebecca Raisin’s Cedarwood Lodge series.
The
story is centred around Clio Winter, who is back in her hometown Evergreen
after living in New York. She is new planning to renovate Cedarwood Lodge and turning
it into a great venue for weddings and other parties. Her best friend Micah is by
her side and helps her.
We then also get to know the other characters, which is great. They are
a fab bunch and I enjoyed getting to know them all. It’s wonderful to see that
some oft hem get their story told as well, still with Clio in the centre, but
it gives the story a great mixture. Of course there is also a love interest for
Clio, as well as for Micah, but I don’t want to say too much about them yet.
Let’s just see how the story develops ;).
There is actually also some mystery and drama included in this story or
we could also call it a secret. It’s all connected to Clio’s family or should I
rather say her mum?! Of course all this is leaving space open for books 2 and
three.
Rebecca has created some wonderful characters here and I like how she
has drawn the story around them. The characters are strong and authentic and
the storyline is exciting. Her style is charming and sweet. There was a little
something missing form e and I can’t explain what! I hope that changes in books
2 and 3, so that’s why I only gave 4 stars to this wonderful book.
Rating:
My possible cast:
Clio: Michaela McManus
Book Links: Amazon | Amazon UK | B&N | Google Play | Goodreads
Author Info:
Rebecca Raisin is a true bibliophile. This love of books
morphed into the desire to write them. She’s been published in various short story
anthologies and in in fiction magazines, and is now focusing on writing
romance.
Rebecca aims to write characters you can see yourself
being friends with. People with big hearts who care about relationships, and
most importantly believe in true love.
Website:
http://rebeccaraisin.com/
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/RebeccaRaisinAuthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jaxandwillsmum
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6915386.Rebecca_Raisin
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Staring up at the imposing
structure with its weathered facade, I had a terrible premonition that I’d made
a mistake. A huge one. But, I reasoned, clawing back rising panic, I had always wanted to buy the
hundred-year-old abandoned lodge. It had been put up for sale recently, and I’d
jumped at the chance. The old place had good sturdy bones; it was solid,
despite the desertion of its caretakers aeons ago.
Even though I’d always dreamed
about owning Cedarwood Lodge I hadn’t expected for it to happen so soon. But it
had, and I’d fallen madly in love with the place as it stood, shutters broken,
doors in need of paint, ivy creeping through broken panes of glass, and
cascading roses growing wild and free around the porch balustrades. Here was a
place untouched for decades and I had a chance to bring it back to its former
glory.
The September sky shifted from
foggy wisps of gray to country blue as dawn arrived in the small New Hampshire
town of Evergreen. A sputtering car swung into the long, winding driveway and I
turned to watch my oldest friend Micah leap from his battered hatchback.
We’d been best friends since
childhood, and though we’d drifted apart as adults he was the first person I
called when I bought Cedarwood Lodge – I offered him the job of maintenance
manager which he’d accepted with a ‘Hell
yeah.’
“You look exactly the same,
Micah,” I said, reaching up for a hug. ‘You haven’t aged a bit.” He’d filled
out, no longer the lanky teenager I’d left behind, but aside from that he was
the same old Micah with the same affable smile.
“It’s the daily hikes up the
bluff. That thin mountain air does wonders for my skin.” He waggled his
eyebrows. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I almost fell over when you
called. Lucky for you I was between jobs…”
“Lucky for me, all right.”
I couldn’t believe it’d been so
long – when was the last time we had properly caught up, five years ago, six?
Time ticked by so fast while I’d been away.
“You’re different,” he said,
gesturing to my outfit and my usual flyaway curls restrained with a clip. “A
little more polished.”
I grinned. “Denim cut offs and
messy hair didn’t quite cut it in Manhattan.”
“What? Crazy city folk.” He
clucked his tongue.
“Right?” I joked. “How’s
Veronica?” I expected him to gush about his long-term girlfriend. Instead, his
lips turned down for the briefest second, before he masked it with a smile.
“Veronica? There’s a blast from
the past. I haven’t seen her for two and a bit years now. She was like you, Clio,
left town and didn’t look back.”
Surprise knocked me sideways that
she’d left town, left Micah.
“Sorry, Micah. I thought…” Way to go, Clio!
He touched my shoulder, giving me
time to wrench the metaphorical foot from my mouth. “It’s OK.” He let out a half
laugh. “One day she just decided that this place was too small for her big
dreams. This town, it isn’t for everyone.”
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