Dominique Gibson

Title of Book: Susannah’s Garden

Author: Debbie Macomber

Year: 2014 (had been reprinted and published again in 2021)

Genre: Women’s fiction, romance

*SPOILER ALERT” – If you have NOT read this book yet, I would strongly suggest you go back and read the book first before you read my review. Thank you*

Quick Summary of the book: Susannah Nelson’s life is upside down at the age of eighteen. She falls in love with her boyfriend, Jake, and wants so desperately want to be with him despite the objections from her father. When Jake disappears from her life for no reason, she is heartbroken and has no other choice but to move on with her life. To make matters worse, she ends up losing her brother in a car accident. Her life will never be the same.

Now, at the age of fifty, she should be content with her life: She has a job as a teacher, a loving husband and a daughter who is trying to figure out what she wants out of life after moving into her parent’s house for the summer. Unfortunately, she is haunted by the past and what could have been between her and her long lost love. When she decides to visit her mother back in her hometown of Colville, Washington, She makes a conscious decision to go find Jake while looking after her mother, who swears up and down that she is seeing the ghost of her dead father. But the longer she stays in Colville, the longer she finds out about the secrets her father has kept from her for years…not to mention that her daughter is keeping secrets from her own by dating the new boy in town who is proving to be more dangerous by the day. Susannah suddenly realizes that some things about her past should be left buried and should be left alone…until she gets a welcome surprise that changes her life.

Overall Rating of this book: This book was okay. I was able to follow the characters in the book from beginning to end and the author did keep the twists and turns coming from the first page to the last but it didn’t have the same effect on me as her previous book had (If you want more information on my review of her other book, I will provide a link for that as well). If it was a vote between this book and the last book I read, I would definitely say that It’s Better This Way was a little better than this book. There was a part in the book where things just seemed a little outdated when it comes to catching someone doing something dirty such as stealing or cheating (Following them around physically is a lot harder to do vs. using a cell phone to track someone down instead).

That’s it for this book review. Please be sure to check back on my website for reviews, articles, and more. If you are interested in purchasing this book, click on the links below for more information.

Susannah’s Garden

It’s Better This Way Book Review

Dominique Gibson

Title of Book: It’s Better This Way

Author: Debbie Macomber

Year: 2021 Hardcover Edition, 2022 Mass Market Edition

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance

*SPOILER ALERT* If you have NOT read this book, I would strongly suggest you stop reading this review right now and read the book first BEFORE you read my review of this book. Thank you*

Summary of what this book is about: Julia Jones is in a rough place in her life. After finding out that her husband cheated on her after thirty-one years of marriage, She is forced to do the unthinkable: Sign the divorce papers despite her feelings of saving her marriage. Despite her strong efforts to work everything out because of her loving her husband, including having to deal with harassing texts from his mistress on ending things for good, she finally breaks down and signs the divorce papers. Unsure of what to do next when it comes to her life, she gets amazing support from their daughters when she decides to sell the family home and move into a condo to have a fresh start. Based upon their father’s cheating ways, it causes a strain when it comes to the relationship between all of them.

After six years of separation from her husband, Julia finally decides to settle in on a new life as being a single woman with a very successful interior-design business…until she meets a new resident during her many workout routines in the exercise room. Although Julia states that she is perfectly fine being alone, there is something quite charming about this man that not only changes Julia’s life but the lives of the other people she cares about.

Overall rating and opinion about the book: I LOVED this book. I have officially voted this book as one of my favorite books of the year in 2022! The way that the story was written when it came to the characters in this book made me feel all sorts of emotions all at once: Sadness, despair, intrigue…the list goes on! There were a lot of twists and turns in this book that I wasn’t expecting, including how Julia’s relationship with her new boyfriend effects the other people in her life as well, including her two daughters and her boyfriend’s two sons! This book is a MUST READ if you are new to Debbie Macomber or if you are just looking for a really great story to read on a cold winter night.

Favorite scene from the book: When Julia and her new boyfriend are sitting down at the table sharing experiences about their horrible date nights together and how much they share the same experiences. (I found it to be so funny, I laughed out loud).

Overall Rating:

That’s it for this book review. Please check on my website for more book reviews. Thank you.

If you want to purchase the book On Amazon, click here

If you want to purchase the book at Ballantine Books, click here

Dominique Gibson

Well, it’s official: I won’t be making my December 31st deadline for Courtney’s Redemption. A part of me is a little disappointed when it comes to this publication issue because I wanted it to be ready in time for the new year. Unfortunately, based on the feedback I have gotten from three editors, I feel as if this novella is just not there yet when it comes to how I want the story to go.

But there is good news on the horizon: Courtney’s Redemption will no longer be a novella, it will be a full-fledged novel! That’s right. Based on the feedback I have gotten, it is just too short to be a novella. It is meant to be a full fledged novel! I am currently in the process of starting this book all over again so that it will become a novel. Despite the horrible delays when it comes to doing three different deadlines, I am somewhat excited to be turning this project into a full length novel and will be sure to keep you posted on the process from beginning to end. Please keep checking back on my website for future updates on this latest project.

Also, please keep checking back on my website for some book reviews that I will be posting throughout the week of Christmas and New Year’s. There were quite a few books I have read within the last few months and I will be more than welcome to share my opinions on what I thought of these books.

Happy Holidays

Dominique Gibson

Hello! Dominique Gibson is back with another post. I know it’s been a while since I have posted here but I have been super busy when it comes to writing and publishing my latest work, Courtney’s Redemption, so I can meet my deadline. Since I made the decision to write and revise it, I gave myself three different deadlines for the book. Those deadlines were:

October 31st, 2022

November 24th, 2022

December 31st 2022

Obviously, the first two deadlines mentioned above did not work because of the busy schedule I had with my full-time job and my other priorities. I also had to consider the different timelines of me actually rewriting the work once I got the feedback from my developmental editor, k__rayne, from Fiverr (If you want to learn more about her and her work, I will leave a link down below for you to check her out). That basically took a month to revise the manuscript based on her suggestions. Once I was completed with that, I sent it back out yesterday (the day before Thanksgiving) to find a proofreader/copyeditor for another round. The person I hired this time will do another round of developmental edits followed by some proofreading of the entire manuscript again. She is supposed to send it back on December 7th of next month for me to review.

Once that happens, I will be able to make the necessary changes I need to make before finally sending it out for publication…before the December 31st deadline.

In the meantime, I will be spending the next three days working on my next project for the Truson S.E.T series that will come out early next year. My hope is that I will also be able to do some book reviews based on the books I have read so far this year and post them here on my website.

Anyways, that is my progress so far. For people in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving. For the rest of the world, have a great day.

Link to K_rayne on Fiverr

Dominique Gibson