I purchased the Kindle edition of Lilac Cottage (Mackinac Cottages Series Book 2, a Christian Mystery & Suspense Romance) by Carrie Fancett Pagels because I’ve enjoyed other titles by this author, I loved the cover, and I love Mackinac Island. I bought the first book in the series as well, Butterfly Cottage (Kindle currently priced at $2.99, but probably not for long). I typically have a ton of digital library books checked out across three different platforms (Libby, Hoopla, and CloudLibrary), and usually am reading the books with the most people waiting on the hold list for them first. I just had to start this book to see how it was, despite my two library books with people waiting, and I read the first half of the book over 2 days because the tyranny of my “to do” list forbade my binging on it in one sitting. By the third day the plot and suspense made the book unputdownable, and I finished the second half in one day; the “to do” list had to wait!
The author has a doctoral degree in psychology, and was in private practice a number of years, both of which make for fascinating characters with interesting motivations in her books. In addition, she is a native of Michigan’s upper peninsula, and has spent a great deal of time enjoying and researching Mackinac Island, Michigan, the setting of this and many of her other books. Lilac Cottage is about a young woman, Rachel, estranged from her abusive mother, and is very close to her grandmother who had recently passed away. She leaves Chicago to return to uniquely beautiful Mackinac Island and her grandmother’s cottage where she’d spent so many happy days growing up, and felt the love of extended family. While at the cottage she works two jobs, and is surprised to feel an immediate chemistry with one of her employers, a man, Jack, who was her childhood best friend’s annoying brother.
Much of the tension and suspense comes from well placed fears and anxieties about the disposition of her grandmother’s estate and how her unsentimental gold digging mother might be involved. Secrets about extended family members are exposed as one matriarch seeks to set the record straight following her husband’s recent passing and his island memorial service. Rachel is busy applying to nursing school, having difficulty reaching her grandmother’s attorney, making an appointment to speak with a local banker about a joint account she shared with her grandmother, and learns there’s another joint account with her name on it that is now hers because the other party has passed away. She learns stunning information about her deceased grandfather, a former federal judge. I had to know how it all turned out!
One of the strongest aspects of the book is the dialogue between characters which propels much of the plot forward. Dialogue can be deadly in a book, slowing everything down. In Lilac Cottage the dialogue flowed easily, was lively, interesting, entertaining, and a powerful engine driving the story through twists and turns, toward its climax and satisfying resolution.
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