Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Review: The Lumby Lines

Author: Gail Fraser
Format: trade paperback, 336 pages
Characters: Mark and Pam Walker
Subject: Being 'from away' in a small town
Setting: Small town in the Northwest
Series: The Lumby Series
Genre: cozy fiction
Source: borrowed from my sister


Published several years ago, I borrowed this one from my sister last month, and picked it up to have something quick and fun to help me get over my reading funk. It's a nice cozy story of a town in the Northwest but it could be anywhere, sort of a Three Pines meets Mitford without the mystery story plots, murders, or detectives. Just ordinary people, living ordinary lives, dealing with the everyday emotions and dreams of everyman.

Well.....not exactly...
  • How many of us have the bazillions of dollars to drop what we're doing, move cross country and buy and restore a burned down monastery, orchard, and all the assortment of out buildings that go with it?
  • How many of us have our own architect we can persuade to leave it all and come with us?
  • How many of us have mud (or other detritis) that turns to roses no matter what?
  • How many of us have our own plastic pink flamingo in the front yard, who magically changes his outfits almost daily to fit the occasion?
I live in a small town, and most of these people are very real, but I wish the author had focused more on the townspeople instead of the newcomers.  I'd like to get to know them better. And while the issues faced by these people "from away" seem anything but everyday, the townspeople are genuine, and it is they who give the story its charm. It's humorous, fun, warm and fuzzy and has lots of room to grow since this appears to be the first of a series. If you live in a small town, you will recognize the setting, the people, the problems. If you don't, you can dream that this is the place you'd want to live if you had your druthers. Perfectly charming, easily readable.

Posted by Tina at 12:02 AM

3 comments:

  1. UnknownJune 8, 2010 at 4:23 PM

    I read this recently also, and wanted to know more about the townspeople. I just got the 2nd book in the series, which is about a different family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MargotJune 8, 2010 at 4:51 PM

    I read and liked the first one. I agree that the town residents are my favorite characters. I also like the monks. I'm going to read the rest of the series because, as you said, it's a place I'd like to live, even if it's only in my head.

    ReplyDelete
  3. skkormanJune 11, 2010 at 10:11 AM

    Sounds like a good read—please enter me to win!

    skkorman AT bellsouth DOT net

    ReplyDelete

Welcome, thanks for stopping by. Now that you've heard our two cents, perhaps you have a few pennies to throw into the discussion. Due to a bunch more anonymous spam getting through, I've had to disallow anonymous comments. I try to respond to all comments posing a question, but may not always get to you right away.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)