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-RT Book Reviews on 92 Pacific Boulevard

“Readers new to Macomber’s significant narrative charms will have no problem picking up the story, while loyal fans are in for a treat.”

-Booklist on 6 Rainier Drive

“Debbie Macomber is a skilled storyteller.”

-Publishers Weekly on 50 Harbor Street

“The books in Macomber’s contemporary Cedar Cove series are irresistibly delicious and addictive.”

-Publishers Weekly on 44 Cranberry Point

“Excellent characterization will keep readers anticipating the next visit to Cedar Cove.”

-Booklist on 311 Pelican Court

“Macomber’s endearing characters offer courage and support to one another and find hope and love in the most unexpected places.”

-Booklist on 204 Rosewood Lane

“Macomber is known for her honorable portrayals of frequent women in small-town America, and this tale cements her position as an icon of the genre.”

-Publishers Weekly on 16 Lighthouse Road

About the AuthorDebbie Macomber, the author of Hannah’s List, 1022 Evergreen Place, Summer on Blossom Street, 92 Pacific Boulevard, and Twenty Wishes, is a leading voice in women’s fiction. Three of her novels have scored the #1 slot on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Debbie Macomber’s Mrs. Miracle was Hallmark Channel’s top-watched movie for 2009. Winner of the 2005 Quill Award for Best Romance, the prolific author has more than 140 million copies of her books in print worldwide.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.”Mom!”

The front door slammed and Beth Morehouse hurried out of the kitchen. Three days before Christmas, and her daughters were home from college—at last! Her foreman, Jeff, had been kind sufficient to pick them up at the airport while Beth dealt with last-minute chores. She’d been looking forward to seeing them for weeks. Throwing her arms wide, she ran toward Bailey and Sophie. “Merry Christmas, girls.”

Squealing with delight, they dropped their bags and rushed into her embrace.

“I can’t believe it’s snowing. It’s so beautiful,” Bailey said, keeping Beth in a tight hug. At twenty-one, she was the oldest by fourteen months. She resembled her father in so galore ways. She was tall like Kent and had his dark brown hair, which she’d tucked beneath a knitted cap. Her eyes shone with a quiet joy. She was the thoughtful one and that, too, reminded Beth of her ex-husband. Three years after the divorce, she still missed him, altho pride would never concede her to confess that. Even her budding kinship with Ted Reynolds, the local veterinarian, paled when she thought regarding her life with Kent and their history together.

“My turn.” Displacing Bailey, Sophie snuggled into Beth’s embrace. “The house looks fabulous, Mom. Really Christmassy.” This child was more like Beth. A few inches shorter than her sister, Sophie had curly auburn hair and eyes so blue they seemed to reflect a summer sky. Releasing Beth, Sophie added, “And it smells wonderful.”

Beth had done her best to make the house as festive and bright as possible for her daughters. She’d expended long hours draping fresh evergreen boughs on the staircase leading to the second-floor bedrooms. Two of the three Christmas trees were loaded with ornaments. The main tree in the family room was still bare, awaiting their arrival so they could embellish it together, which was a family tradition.

A trio of four-foot-tall snowmen stood guard in the hallway near the family room where the Nativity scene was displayed on the fireplace mantel. Decorating had helped take Beth’s mind off the fact that her ex-husband would be joining them for Christmas. This would be the basi time she’d seen him in three years. Oh, they’d spoken many times enough, but each speech had revolved around their daughters. Nothing else. No questions asked. No remarks of a personal nature. Just the girls and only the girls. It’d been strictly business. Until now.

Until Christmas.

They both loved the holidays. It was Kent who’d basi suggested they have various Christmas trees. Always fresh ones, which was one reason Beth had been attracted to the Christmas tree farm when she started her new life.

“I’ve got lunch ready,” Beth said, attempting to turn her attention away from her ex-husband. He still lived in California, as did the girls. He’d stayed in their hometown of Sacramento, while Bailey and Sophie both attended university in San Diego. According to their daughters, Kent had asked to come for Christmas. She’d known for almost two weeks that he’d made reservations at the

Thyme and Tide B and B in Cedar Cove. The news that he’d be in town had initially come as a shock to Beth. He hadn’t discussed it with her at all. Instead, he’d had their daughters do his talking for him. That made everything more awkward, because it wasn’t as if she could refuse, not with Bailey and Sophie so excessively affected emotionally regarding spending Christmas together as a family. But Kent’s plans had left her with a host of unanswered questions. Was this his way of telling Beth he missed her? Was he looking for a reconciliation? Was she? The questions swarmed in her head, but the answers wouldn’t be clear until he arrived. At least she’d be better competent to judge his reasons. His intentions. And her own…

“Just like it employed to be,” Bailey finished. Beth had missed whatsoever she’d said before that, altho it wasn’t hard to guess.

Just like it used to be. These were magic words, but Beth had recognized long ago that the clock only moved forward. Yet the girls’ eagerness, Kent’s apparent insistence and her nostalgia for what they’d once shared swept detached her customary reserve.

“Mom?” Bailey said when she didn’t respond. “We’re talking…Where are you?”

Beth gave a quick shake of her head. “Woolgathering. Sorry. I haven’t had much sleep lately.” Exhausted as she was, managing the tree farm and getting ready for Christmas with her daughters—and Kent—she’d scarcely slept. She couldn’t. Every time she closed her eyes, Kent was there. Kent with his boyish smile and his eyes twinkling with mischief and fun. They’d been happy once and someways they’d lost that and so much more. Beth had never been capable to put her finger on what incisively had gone wrong; she only knew that it had. In the end they’d lived discerned lives, going their own ways. Their daughters had held them together—and then they were off at college, and of a sudden it was just Kent and Beth. That was when they ran into they no longer had anything in common.

“You’re not sleeping?” Bailey’s eyes widened with concern.

Sophie elbowed her sister. “Bailey, think when it comes to it. This is the busiest time of year for a Christmas tree farm. Then there’s all this decorating. And, if we’re genuinely lucky—”

“Mom made date candy?” Bailey cut in.

“And caramel corn?” Sophie asked hopefully, hands folded in prayer.

“Yes to you both. It wouldn’t be Christmas without our particular treats.”

“You’re the best mom in the world.”

Beth smiled. She’d had less than three hours’ sleep, thanks to all the Christmas preparations, her dogs and…her incessant memories of Kent. Traffic at the tree farm had thinned out now that Christmas was only three days away. But families were still stopping by and there was rather a bit to do, including cleanup. Her ten-man crew was down to four and they’d coped just fine without either her or Jeff this morning. While he drove out to the airport, she’d been getting ready for her daughters’ arrival. However, as soon as lunch was over, she necessitated to head back outside.

Beth and the girls had booked a skiing trip among Christmas and New Year’s, and after the hectic schedule of the past two months, she was counting on a few relaxing days with her daughters. Their reservations were made and she was eager to go. Ted Reynolds, good friend that he was, had offered to take care of her animals, which reminded her of the one hitch in her utterly planned holiday escape.

“Before we sit down to eat, I need to tell you we have particular guests this Christmas.”

“You mean Dad, right?” Bailey led the way into the other room, where there was more greenery and a beautifully arranged table with three place settings.

“Well, yes, your father. But he’s not the only one____”

“Mom.” Bailey tensed as she spoke. “Don’t tell me you have a boyfriend. It’s that vet, isn’t it?”

“Ten guests, actually,” she said, ignoring the comment in regards to Ted, “and they aren’t all boys.”

“Puppies?” Sophie guessed.

“Puppies,” Beth confirmed, not astonished that her daughter had figured it out. “Ten of them.”

“Ten?” Sophie cried, aghast.

Without asking, Bailey went straight to the laundry room off the kitchen. “Where did you get ten puppies?” The instant she opened the door, all ten black puppies scampered into the kitchen, scrambling about, skidding throughout the polished hardwood floor.

“They’re adorable.” Sharing Beth’s love for animals, both girls were without delay down on the floor, scooping the puppies into their arms. Before long, each held at least two of the Lab-mix puppies, the little creatures intent on licking their faces.

Unable to resist, Beth joined her daughters and assembled the remaining puppies onto her lap. One curled into a tight ball. Another climbed onto her shoulder and begun licking her ear. The others squirmed until one wriggled free and chased his tail with determined vigor, altogether preoccupied. They in truth were adorable, which was good because in each other way they were a nuisance.

Sophie kept a puppy to her cheek. “Where’d you get them, Mom?”

“They were.a gift,” she explained, turning her face away to keep out of the way of more wet, slurpy kisses.

“A gift?”

“But why’d you take all ten?” Bailey asked, astonished.

“I didn’t have any choice. They showed up on my porch in a basket a week ago.” Beth didn’t say that discovering these puppies had been the proverbial last straw. They’d in a literal sense appeared on her doorstep the same day she’d learned Kent was coming here for Christmas. For an insane moment she’d considered running away, grabbing a plane to Fiji or Bora-Bora. Instead, she’d run over to the Hardings’ and ended up spilling her heart out to Grace. Under normal conditions, Beth wasn’t one to percentage her burdens with others. However, this was plainly too much—an ex-husband’s unexpected visit and the arrival of ten abandoned puppies, all for the duration of the busiest season of the year. The Hardings had given her tea and sympathy; Ted had been wonderful, too. Beth was thankful for his willingness to watch her animals but she refused to leave him with these ten further and added dogs. So she’d made it her goal to find homes for all of them before Christmas. Which didn’t give her a lot of time…

“How could someone just drop off ten puppies?” Bailey asked as she lifted one intrepid little guy off her shoulder and settled him in her lap.

“Who could do that and not be seen?” Sophie added. “I mean, you have people working all over this place.”

Beth had surely asked around. “Jeff saw a woman with a huge basket at my door. He thought he recognized her from his church, but when he asked her, she refused it. Then later, …