ROSE HARBOR IN BLOOM – Debbie Macomber
Rose Harbor Inn Series , Book 2
Ballantine
ISBN-13: 978-0-345-52893-3
August 2013
Women's Fiction

Cedar Cove, Washington – Present Day

Jo Marie Rose is right at home in her new bed and breakfast, The Rose Harbor Inn.  Right now, Jo Marie is busy cleaning and preparing.  This weekend the Inn will be fully booked for the first time; all her rooms are rented.  Then after this busy week of guests, she is hosting an open house for the community to be properly introduced to Rose Harbor Inn.  Jo Marie is excited…and filled with dread at the same time.  The flowers are in bloom and everything is beautiful; the rhododendrons and azaleas are so colorful and welcoming, but she still has no roses. How can she open the Rose Harbor Inn with no roses?  Her handyman, Mark Taylor, is a crotchety, but young man who does things in his own good time.  Jo Marie asked him months ago to build her rose garden. They made a plan, and he started work, but the ground is still torn up, and there is not a rose bush anywhere to be found. 
 
Among Jo Marie's guests for this stay are Kent and Julie Shivers, whose granddaughter, Annie Newton, is planning the celebration of their fiftieth wedding.  The entire family is staying at The Rose Harbor Inn. In fact, Jo Marie only has two rooms left, and she just booked them for Oliver Sutton, a friend of the Shivers's who is driving them from Portland; and the other is lent to a business woman from New York, Mary Smith. 
 
Annie Newton is excited to be helping plan her grandparents' anniversary party. She remembers her grandparents being so much in love, but now, it seems as if they argue about everything!  How can they celebrate their marriage if they are fighting?  And why did they have to bring Oliver with them?  The one person she does not want to see again is Oliver Sutton.
 
Mary Smith is recovering from cancer.  She's come home, or as close to Seattle as she feels comfort able, to see her former fiancé, George.  She left George years ago; at that time she was climbing the corporate ladder, and she got to the top at the brokerage firm, but she accomplished that feat in New York, not Seattle.  Now, she's here to make peace with the secret she never told George; she's not sure she dares to tell him now. 
 
Jo Marie wishes there were actual roses blooming in her garden, but still, the other flowers depict ROSE HARBOR IN BLOOM.  While Jo Marie is preparing for her guests, she and Mark get into a heated argument, and it looks as if she won't get that rose garden after all.  She also receives devastating news about her deceased husband, Paul, and the cause of his death in Afghanistan. 
 
The second book in the Rose Harbor Inn series, ROSE HARBOR IN  BLOOM stands alone and follows THE ROSE HARBOR INN (September 2012). With each book we meet new characters who come to stay at the Inn, and we revisit the characters from previous Cedar Cove books too: Grace Harding, Peggy and Bob Beldon, and others. 
 
ROSE HARBOR IN BLOOM is a great story! 

Diana Risso