Customer Reviews

Aprons on a Clothesline (The Lake Emily Series #3)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

In Austin, Minnesota, near Lake Emily, Virginia Morgan tells her friend Lillian Biddle that she has a bad headache, but will be okay. However, not long afterward, Virginia collapses inside the Spam Museum. Nurse Mary Shrupp calls 911 believing the kindhearted grandmother suffered a stroke.

Virginia survives, but is not the same person as she feels unneeded since she is unable to help others like she has all her life. Depressed, Virginia begins to question whether she and those caring for her would be better off if she was dead especially since she knows that others in town need help but her body refuses to cooperate. However, she thinks her worst failure is not being there for Jessie Wise who needs a nurturing mother just like the pre stroke Virginia provided to everyone for decades in the Lake Emily area. Instead the post stroke Virginia has given up on life.

APRONS ON A CLOTHESLINE is a deep look at small town rural life with an emphasis on believing in God, hard work, and honesty with one's self and towards others. Many of the characters return from previous novels (see A CAN OF PEAS and DANDELIONS IN A JELLY JAR) with new troubles as relationships change. However, the star of this tale is Virginia who goes from an active elderly person providing assistance and nurturing whenever she can to a beaten individual struggling with receiving love and care as opposed to giving. Fans of inspirational character driven tales will enjoy the Lake Emily series especially this powerful third entry.

Harriet Klausner

If you're a fan of Jan Karon's "Mitford" series and are looking for some of the same sort of novels to fill the time between installments, Traci DePree's warm, sweet and humorous tales of small town Minnesota farm life will fit the bill. In her third saga, APRONS ON A CLOTHESLINE, she continues the enjoyable stories begun in her debut novel, A CAN OF PEAS, and its follow-up, DANDELIONS IN A JELLY JAR.

What's not to like about the characters who populate Lake Emily? Like most small towns, its inhabitants are a hodge-podge of the young and the aging, the slightly bad and the just plain quirky, and the kind and the loveable. As happens in the best novels, you come to care about the characters (who, rather than the plot, keep the pages turning).

Readers of the earlier books will recognize Peter Morgan and his wife Mae, now settled into farming and up nights with a much-loved new baby. Complicating things for the couple is caring for Peter's aged grandmother, Virginia, who suffers a stroke while on an outing to the SPAM Museum, and now battles suicidal depression. Her stalwart group of women friends, the Suzy Q Extension Group, works hard to get Virginia engaged with life again.

Meanwhile, Trudy and Bert Biddle tie the knot, and she finds navigating the ins and outs of being a farmer's wife --- and having the demanding Lillian for a mother-in-law --- is more than she bargained for. Further difficulties arise as Trudy finds herself jealous of Mae's preoccupation with the new baby and the demands it places on her sister's life.

Things come to a climax as Lillian and Willie Biddle decide to deed over the farm to Bert, cutting his twin brother Fred out of the family inheritance. Fred shows up on the scene just before things are finalized, with his new Russian wife Svetlana on his arm. As relationships go from frayed to broken within the Biddle family, Trudy takes Svetlana under her wing. As she teaches Svetlana how to drive and coaches her on becoming more independent, it provides some of the best moments in the book.

Meanwhile, Virginia slowly comes to terms with her disabilities with the help of a charming elderly widower, August Cleworth. But when her newly protective grown son David returns home to help her recover, her relationship with August becomes problematic. She's also trying to repair things with ten-year-old Jessie Wise, who through a series of misunderstandings feels Virginia doesn't want to see her anymore. Jessie turns to Virginia's physical therapist, Anna Eastman, and soon begins to dream of her becoming the mother she so desperately needs. Jessie's father, however, is still tempted by the bottle, and Jessie's dreams seem a long way from ever coming true.

Readers may find the abundance of plot threads, points of view, and flashbacks to earlier times in the lives of the characters that begin every new chapter a lot to juggle. To her credit, DePree does a good job keeping all the balls in the air. Rather than reading APRONS ON A CLOTHESLINE as a stand-alone novel, most readers will find it beneficial to begin with A CAN OF PEAS followed by DANDELIONS IN A JELLY JAR. Be prepared for some gentle and entertaining fiction.

--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby

If you have read Can of Peas and Dandelions in a Jelly Jar, then you know that you'll be in comforting and easy reading with this one. If you have not read any of DePree's other works, then I would suggest that you start with Can of Peas so you won't miss out on the background of this one!

This book deals with Virginia, Peter Morgan's grandmother. Virginia has always been the strong person, the one everyone leans on for comfort and strength when things go wrong. She is the one who offers a ready smile and a helping hand. She is the grandmotherly type who will bake cookies for you and ask you to sit at the table and tell her all about your problems. Then one day, she has a stroke and finds herself at the receiving end of getting the help. The problem is, she does not like being dependent on others.

The book also focuses on Mae and Peter Morgan as they welcomed their newest child, Trudy and Bert as they deal with inlaw issues and being newly married themselves. Jessie is still there but the spotlight is not on her as much this time. She still struggles with wanting a mother. David Morgan, Peter's father, Virgina's son, is also in this book but not nearly as much as he was in the last book. There are a couple of new characters introduced into this book. But the focus is on Virginia.

As always, DePree writes of her Lake Emily characters with a deft brush ~~ but like her last book, there just isn't enough character development to make me say WOW! It's more of a tease ~~ she writes then makes me want to know more.

But as for comforting reading goes, this one is definitely a good one. So pull up a chair and a cup of hot tea and enjoy an afternoon reading about the Lake Emily residents.

2-12-06

I received this series for Christmas, after asking for them based on the recommendation of a stranger here on amazon ("father_tim" and his list
of favorite gentle fiction books). I absolutely love them! I'm a huge Jan Karon
fan, and thought these wouldn't be nearly as good, but they really are.
I've only read the first two so far - I keep holding off on reading the third,
because I don't want to be finished with the series! I just may re-read the
first two before reading the last one.
Highly recommended!!

One of the best terms for Traci's books is "comforting." Written with a readable style, her rural setting and familiar characters offer readers an oasis from the stress of everyday life. You may also want to read Can of Peas by Traci and, if you care for short Christian fiction, I would recommend Cool Water for the Thirsting Soul by Kenny Paul Clarkson.

Have read all three of Traci Depree's books and loved each one. I adored the characters, who stayed in my heart long after the story ended. Traci's books are quick (unfortunately!) reads with very real, sweet, poignant, and sometimes heart-wrenching, storylines. These are books you don't want to end. Am looking forward to the next installment in what I hope is a very long series.

Just in the month of June I have read A Can of Peas, Dandelions in a Jelly Jar, and Aprons on a Clothesline. Peter and Mae remind me of my own step-daughter and son-in-law who are living down the road from us on the family farm which has been in my husband's family for 75 years. My step-daughter who was raised mostly in the city and visited her grandparents here on the farm has become a true southern farm wife and mother. I have fallen in love with these characters and I can't wait until the next book to see what is currently happening in Lake Emily. Traci, I hope you are busy on the next installment.

I keep wondering how Ms. DePree is going to keep the story line going and she has yet to disappoint me. I can't wait until the next book comes out!!!!!!!

I have read all 3 of the books in this series. I could not put this one down,(had it read in a day and half). You just feel like the characters need you to know about them. I hope there are books to read about the people in Lake Emily. Please Write more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Connie
Roseto, PA

This writer makes you feel like you are close to these families and are participating in their day-to-day lives. Hated to see this one end; can't wait for the next one.