Customer Reviews

A Christmas to Remember (Cape Light, Book 7)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Just a few days past Thanksgiving in Cape Light, Sara comes to see her grandmother, who fails to respond to her knock or her entrance. She finds Lillian unconscious on the floor of her bedroom. Sara quickly calls 911. Lillian has pneumonia.

While lying on the floor, Lillian was dreaming back to 1955 when she was an assistant curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. That summer she was visiting her cousin Charlotte in Newburyport when she met Oliver Warwick at a yacht club gala. He courted her as he thought she was beautiful, strong, and filled with an élan for life. Oliver loved her and though at first she rejected his advances, she soon loved him too. She continues her muses thinking about the mistakes she has made, how much she loves her daughters, and Sara who returned into their lives just a few years ago having been given up for adoption. Lily wonders when did she turn from a spirited happy person into a matronly scrooge, She ponders whether it is too late to regain what she once was emotionally starting with this yuletide season as she begins to realize how much joy her life has been surrounded by loved ones.

The latest Christmas Cape Light inspirational tale (see CHRISTMAS ANGEL and A CHRISTMAS PROMISE) is a fine character driven story starring an elderly angry miserable person who upon becoming ill reflects on her life to her loved ones. Lily is an interesting character as she knows how ugly she has become especially when she thinks back to the salad days with her beloved Oliver. Though her transformation seems too simplistic, fans of the series will enjoy her reflections on her life.

Harriet Klausner

I have read several books by Thomas Kinkade of this Cape Light series, including this one. While they are all related, you can pick up a random one and very easily know what is going on as the author will review the characters. I've read them out of sequence but it's been very easy to follow along. This one I especially enjoyed as I loved the flashbacks to Lillian's life. I guess the only thing I don't understand is that Lillian runs away against her parents' wishes to marry Oliver, and in another book in the series, her daughter Jessica marries someone against her wishes. You'd think she'd be more tolerant after what she went through with the estrangement from her parents.

I'd love to live in a town this close where everyone cares about each other and steps in when they are needed. While I'm not overly religious myself, these books have just enough religion in them that you don't feel like you're in church or being preached to. It's just comforting.....don't hesitate to read any of these books.

This was one of those books where at the end you're thinking, "Huh"?
First of all inside the front jacket the description says Lillian is suffering from pneumonia, when its actually two broken bones from a fall that has her laid up. Then it says that while she's recuperating, her mind drifts back to 1955 when she was young, beautiful, & first fell in love with her soon to be husband. According to the jacket cover, she supposedly tells her daughters all about this magical season, but there are no such conversations at all between Lillian and her two daughters. In fact, Lillian hoards all pictures & letters from that era in a box that she guards. There was only one small conversation about the past between Lillian and her granddaughter Sara, and that was only because Sara happen to have a peek at a letter that had fallen from the box. At that point, you think Finally! Now the story will get better and we will find out what happened with Lillian and her "where is he now" husband. But you never get to find out. You only know that 1)he is not presently in Lillian's life, and 2)somewhere along the way there was some sort of financial ruin and disgrace. No other details. Did he die? Did one of them leave the other after the 'disgrace'? Basically I kept waiting for more information on Lillian's marriage with Oliver, and what had happened to him. They put enough background in there during all those jumps to 1955, that it leaves you empty when the book ends without filling you in on anything past their elopement.

The other thing the front jacket says, is that Lillian "recalls how much she had to be grateful for then, and realizes how rich her life can be today if she opens her heart". Well, all throughout the book I kept waiting for Lillian to open her heart, and I guess in the very end she was a little less grumpy than before, but I expected more.

Basically, the story flips back and forth between present day, and 1955 where she met and fell in love with the wonderful Oliver, a man her parents pre-judged to be no-good and then disowned her when she eloped with him. The fact that she was unjustly disowned by her parents all those years ago had me wondering why she was then so judgmental against Sara's fiance, Luke, who was obviously a wonderful man also. I thought maybe she'd realize she was now judging her granddaughter's fiance, just like her parents had judged Oliver in 1955. I kept thinking, oh, maybe this is where she'll open her heart. To be fair, I guess she did improve from downright mean-spirited to simply rude. Again, I expected more, especially from a "Christmas" season book.
The only bright story line in the book was the one involving Lucy, the nurse in training. Although there are hardships along the way, at least that story has closure.
To be fair, the story does keep you interested, and it is a nice easy read. And, there are a few small developments at the end that kind of make up for the developments that never were addressed.
But I guess all in all I was just a little let down.

This is, I think, the 7th story set in the small fictional town of Cape Light. Sadly, I've read a previous one, and familiarity didn't help.

The story goes between 3 different story threads: 1) elderly curmudgeon Lillian Warwick is injured in a fall (the flyleaf says she has pneumonia--she doesn't); 2) Lillian in her youth; and 3) nursing student Lucy Bates.

You'd think the three threads would intertwine--that Lucy would end up caring for Lillian at the hospital, and that things that happened in Lillian's youth would affect her present. They don't. At all. It's like three completely separate stories.

The only commonality between young Lillian and old Lillian is that I didn't like either one of them. Young Lillian was the type of young woman who's rude to men on principle. I despise that trait. And old Lillian was rude to everyone.

Lucy wasn't much better--she was a doormat. Her husband resents her spending time at her studies, especially when she has to work at the hospital, so he belittles her and does his best to undermine her confidence, refusing to help with the kids or the house. Lucy's reaction? To doubt herself and finally give up.

There were also a couple of annoying errors that stuck in my head. One was the nursing school. At one point, Lucy performs perfectly all day, but forgets to raise a bed rail. Her instructor tells her she gets an F for the day because of that. I don't buy that one mistake would merit a failing grade. I also don't buy that nursing students get letter grades for each day. Granted, my hospital experience is a couple of decades old, and it was a decade earlier than that that my mom went to nursing school, so it could very well be realistic--it just didn't feel like it.

The other one was really stupid. The hero of young Lillian's thread gets a Purple Heart. For valor. Um. No. Even non-military types know what Purple Hearts are, and they're not for valor. A quick click to Wikipedia would have fixed that.

Yeah, those were minor. The big problem is that the book was boring. Nothing really happened, there was no rhyme or reason to collecting those three threads in this book--it would have worked better if they'd been separated completely as 3 novellas instead of jumping between threads each chapter. The characters weren't likable, and none of them changed--except for an unbelievable change of heart of Lucy's husband at the very end.

And there were the usual sappy lite-religious platitudes from Reverend Ben.

Each book in this series features a different character in the quaint little New England town just North of Boston called Cape Light. Each story brings those characters to life, so you feel like you've gone back home to visit all your friends and relatives again. This particular story zeroes in on Lillian Warwick, the fiesty, often sarcastic grandmother of Emily, the town's mayor. She isn't your typical "warm, cuddly grandmotherly" type, that's for sure, but in this episode she's fallen down the attic stairs trying to retrieve a box of old photos and letters that are very precious to her. She winds up in the hospital, and needs a cast on one arm and one leg. As she's home recovering from her injuries the holiday season approaches. She does a lot of reminiscing about her youth as she re-reads those old letters and looks at the photos. The story keeps flashing back to the 1950's when she was a young woman, and you gain insight into this character's past. At the same time, you're enjoying all the preparations being made for the current holiday season, getting reacquainted with what's going on in the lives of all your other Cape Light friends. An excellent read, during the holiday season or any other time of the year. If you've read and enjoyed the previous Cape Light stories, you'll enjoy going back for another visit in the pages of this book. The last couple of pages get just a little too sappy for my taste, but otherwise - a truly excellent read!!

I have read all of the Cape Light books. This is one of the better ones. The focus is on the grandmother's life and probably hopes to shed some light on "why she is the way she is" in her older age. The authors do a good job of bringing this earlier era to life. The story was fairly fast moving and the characters "comfortable" especially if you have read the other books. It does leave some questions unanswered about the grandmother's late husband and his somewhat "shady" dealings that brought disgrace to the family. Whether this is an oversight or whether it was intentional, is hard to say. The one thing about Kincade's books that bothers me is that they need a better editor/proof writer. With each book, I swear I will never read another due to the number of typographical and grammatical errors. I'm not the best in this area, but many of these are so obvious and distracting from the story line. But all in all for a good read on a winter afternoon by the fire, this book fits the bill.

As with all the Kinkade books that I have read, I enjoyed this one too. The continuing stories with familiar characters always make it seem like I am coming home. I spend alot of time in the Gloucester and Rockport,MA area and the settings in this book are familiar and recognizeable to me. I can't wait for new books to come out.

While the characters are quite formulaic throughout the series, the presentation in this particular book made it a more interesting read as the author goes back in time to chronicle the life of one of the main characters.

However, I was appalled to see a Christian author have the character of the Reverend, of all characters, tell a parishioner something blatently non-Christian. The character was conversing with the Reverend about dying and possibly going to Hell and he answers "if there is such a place."

Christians know there is a Heaven and there is a Hell. Your faith and acceptance of Jesus determines in which one you will spend eternity. To have the spiritual leader character throughout this entire series make such a blasphemous statement (with no further comment or explanation) is appalling.

This is nicely written with good character development and writing that reads like a Christmas painting. I had trouble with all the jumping back and forth between present day and 1955 as Lillian recalls her past. Much is left out at the expense of in depth character development, almost too much description of a husband, Oliver who we never learn how he dropped out of Lillian's life other than a paragraph about financial ruin and disgrace. Overall it was an interesting read and I liked it.

Lillian Warwick is a curmudgeonly old woman who suffers a bad fall and is forced into the care of her daughters and granddaughter. After the fall she finds herself reliving old memories of times gone by and remembers her own history and past mistakes. Will acknowledging the pain in her past allow her to acknowledge the reality of her future? Lucy Bates is a nurse in training at the hospital where Lillian was admitted. She too has some big decisions ahead of her as she struggles with thoughts of quitting nursing school and going back to being a waitress full time. She isn't helped in this by her less than supportive husband, who undercuts her commitment and confidence at every turn. But, with the coming of the Christmas season and following New Year both of these women, and their families undergo a transformation worthy of the spirit of the holiday season.

This novel is apparently the seventh in a series of books about Cape Light. It is written in such a way, though, that I had no problem picking up the novel and enjoying it. This book was co-written by Thomas Kinkade, The Painter of Light, one of his works is featured on the cover, the painting Skater's Pond.

I enjoyed the positive messages and the well written storyline in this book. I enjoyed reading about all of the characters and had no problems getting involved in their lives and their problems, given time. I especially liked the historical back story given about Lillian Warwick with flashbacks to the 1950's, an era I enjoy learning about. Throughout the novel the frustrations and joys of the holidays were very well illustrated and a lot of the messages really struck home. Just a warning, this is a bit of a Christian novel in that there is prayer, sermons, biblical references and discussions of faith.

The book cuts back and forth between several key characters throughout, and for me this made it hard to get into. This book started out and ended with the groups being loosely interconnected but never really together. The story was a little short to be doing so much cutting back and forth and, aside from all of the characters being from Cape Light, their bonds were tenuous at best.

My only other complaint was really about the way the novel treated Lillian Warwick's story at the end. Without giving too much away, a major point is constantly hinted at and alluded to throughout the novel concerning her husband, the book ends leaving just what those allusions were to up to the reader. I hate books that do that.

In the end this was a wonderful way to finish my season of holiday reading. The story had lots of warm messages about faith, forgiveness, fidelity, love, hope and strength that I hope to carry on into the New Year.