First off, I'm a fan of this author, have been since GARDEN OF LIES. Having said that, though, I've had a few problems with this series. I don't like the overuse of similies, for one thing. The only other major problem I found was the inconsistincies that cropped up throughout the series: she's said the age gap between Sam and Ian is 14-15 years--but if Sam is 48 and Ian is 31, that's 17 years. She gave Wes' age as, alternately, 53 or 54. In TASTE OF HONEY, she said once that Ian's dad was married to Sam's eldest daughter--but Laura is the eldest! She wrote about Sam being the devoted wife/mother and told of her baking, etc.--but her sister couldn't see her sewing curtains? She gave Sam attributes that didn't quite come through in the character's actions. She said that Claire had gonein search of Gerry, when it was the other way around. She said Finch's room was off the barn--in another place, it was Hector's. She tends to repeat certain phrases and actions--s esx scene in this novel is very similar on one in the first book (apparently, both Sam and Anna taste like exotic fruit in the you-know-where). She tends to jump the gun--Ian knew Sam had borrowed the dog from a male friend before she told him, and here Finch knew the baby on the way was a sister before Laura told her. Apparently, the copyeditor was asleep at the wheel. But what Ms. Goudge does best--relationships--comes through in spades here. I didn't buy Sam and Ian together--too much of their realtionship took place off-camera, so to speak (ironically, she's a more interesting charecter in the subsequent books that she was in her own tale)--but I loved Gerry and Aubrey and Anna and Marc. This is a rich, totally believable story.

Eileen's Goudge's Wish Come True was an excellent end to a wonderful trilogy. The three books, Stranger in Paradise, Taste of Honey and now Wish Come True are written so eloquently and demurely that the reader falls into the books and into the characters. Specifically Wish Come True goes into depth with sideline characters from earlier in the trilogy. Here we live daily with Anna and her sister's fame. We struggle alongside her as she deals with weight, fear, and love. Once this book is picked up, it won't be put down until the last sentence has been read. Beautiful, touching, moving...

Who could possibly think Anna would kill Monica???? Not that she doesn't deserve to after all that she has put her thru but of course you can't put down the book once you get started. Great way to start your holiday weekend by picking up a copy of this book.
Carson Springs is a great place to live and I wish there were a Tea & Sympathy near my home.
Congratulations Eileen for once again writing about the people in Carson Springs who we have all known to come and love. If you haven't read her other books go out and get them you don't know what you are missing. Pure enjoyment.

Eileen Goudge has captured me with this trilogy. Carson Springs is a place that I would want to live. In this second installment, the story focuses on Gerry Fitzgerald and her family. It is a wonderful story of a mother meeting her daughter that was given up for adoption, the struggle to help her children understand, and of a woman wrestling with the idea of falling in love again. The characters from the first book are all present. The story picks up right where Stranger in Paradise left off. I can't wait for the third book.

Gerry Fitzgerald, a feisty, independent divorced mother raising two children in the beautiful valley of Carson Springs, California, has decided to find the daughter she gave up for adoption 28 years ago. She was impregnated while in the convent by the parish priest, and for many years has been consumed by guilt and emptiness. She finds her long lost daughter, Claire Brewster, who is now an attorney in northern California, engaged to be married to her childhood sweetheart, Byron, who is in his medical residency at Stanford Hospital.

When they finally meet, Gerry finds that Claire is more beautiful and successful than she could have imagined, but Claire is bewildered and conflicted because of the smothering parents who adopted her and are fearful of losing her to her real mother. Gerry's younger teenage daughter is jealous of the attention that Claire is getting from her mother. Justin was also shocked at hearing the news that he had another older sister and angry at his mother for keeping her a secret for so long.

After her brief introduction to her new family, Claire returns to her home and Gerry doesn't hear from her again for more than 6 weeks. She is afraid that Claire doesn't want to be part of their family. However, Claire was so impressed with Carson Springs and the people there that she decided to quit her job as an attorney, and go into partnership with her best friend by opening a tea shop in Carson Springs in a quaint Victorian home that she had spotted when she was in town.

Taste of Honey is filled with interesting and realistic characters, including the nuns at the convent where Gerry works, her current lover, Aubrey who is a world-class symphony conductor, her best friend, Sam who is having a late-in-life baby, Claire's contractor, Matt, and many other colorful locals. Claire is torn between two lovers, Gerry is denying the fact that she is falling in love with Aubrey, and Gerry and Claire are trying to forge a new relationship after many years apart.

I was thoroughly absorbed and engaged by this heart-warming story and look forward to more in this series set in Carson Springs.

Eileen Goudge has a gift of seeing into people's hearts and in this second book of the Carson Springs series she takes us back to this serene little town in California to visit with people who feel as real as our own friends.....Gerry Fitzgerald seeks a grown daughter she was forced to give up at birth. Even though she has two other children she always felt a void in her life.....After she found her daughter, Claire, she struggled to meld her family with Claire. Claire Brewster agreed to travel to Carson Springs to meet her "new family" and fell in love with the town and the people she met there......With the help of her friend, Kitty Seagrave, Claire left her "safe" job to start a new career in Carson Springs to the dismay of her adoptive family and her longtime love. She became torn between two loves.....This move has made her birth mother, Gerry very happy, but caused mixed feelings with her two other children......Gerry has been having a relationship with a famous symphony conductor, Aubrey Roellinger. Aubrey is a widower with loving feelings for his late wife. Gerry is divorced from her husband after a disappointing marriage. Both Aubrey and Gerry do not want to remarry, but agree to have a non-commited relationship....Gerry finds herself falling deeply in love with Aubrey and he with her. It took the near death of their freinds Sam, Ian, and their unborn baby in a car accident to make them realize that they need to give up their obsessions of the past and start to live in the present and go on with each other in the future for a full complete life......I can hardly wait for next book in this series.

Okay, this has got to be every bored suburban housewife's ultimate fantasy--hot young hunk falls inexpiicably in love with the most ordinary woman in the neighborhood! She's not particularly witty or charming or confident. She's never been anywhaere or done anything--so aside from a mother figure, what does sexy YOUNG Ian want with her? She likes to bake and sew and play bridge; she wants a man who'll curl up and watch Masterpiece Theater with her--wow! Sounds like Saturday nite at the retirement home! Toss in a bag of Depends and you have one sexy package. Her tastes in music, pastimes (honeymoon bridge, for crying out loud!), manner of speaking and attitudes all add up to OLD. I found myself wondering if she was 48 or 68! The author gives Samantha attributes that never come through in her character; she describes her as being high-spirited and humorous, but we the readers never SEE it. Ms. Goudge contradicts herself in many places. She says Samantha felt unlovedby her late husband, who made her feel like she was the only person in the world. Huh? Her sister can't imagine this earth mother sewing curtains. Huh? Samantha and Ian are supposed to be in love, she's insulted when other sugest it's ony about the sex--yet that's all they ever do when they're together. They spend less than one-fourth of the story together, and all he wnats to do is have sex with this gal who doens't seem to know which end is up in this regard, but they're madly in love. Huh? And ona final note...Ms. Goudge, an artist WOULD know the difference between peach and pink!!!

Eileen Goudge never disappoints her readers. She delivers well-written, engrossing books about characters you come to feel are friends. STRANGER IN PARADISE offers all this and something more--an inside look at small-town California life--which is very different from life in L.A. or San Francisco. I especially enjoyed the bee keeping nuns and the descriptions of the lush countryside. Thanks, Eileen, for another great read. Can't wait until the next book in this series.

After becoming a devoted fan of Eileen Goudge with her first novel Garden of Lies. I could not wait to get started with her latest. Stranger in Paradise was a joy to read from beginning to end. I cannot wait for the 2nd book in this trilogy to come out. She took me to a place called Carson Springs and into the lives of Samantha Kiley and her two daughters. On the day of her daughter Alice's marriage to Wes, none are aware how much each of their lives will be changed by this event. Widowed for 2 years Sam finds love where she least expects and upsets both the community where she lives and the relationship she has with both her daughters. This leads them all down the path to growth and understanding. This story has it all. From family conflict, love and mysetry it grips from the beginning to the end in hopes that it all will come together and the end is no disappointment.

Gerry Fitzgerald is moved to revisit her past when her best friend, Samantha Kiley becomes pregnant. Suddenly, she needs to find the child she gave up for adoption thirty years ago, when she was a postulant nun and could not keep the child. This has been a haunting secret from her family, and learning it shocks and angers her two nearly grown children, each of whom are dealing with their own painful situations. Gerry's firstborn is not all that thrilled with meeting her either, but does so anyway, defying her own family.

The road ahead of each player in this excellent drama is rocky, to say the least. Matters of the heart, both romantic and otherwise plauge them as the newly found families learn to love one another and deal with romances. New love and new life await, but so do pain and danger.

**** Not classified an inspirational romance, this novel still has profoundness that will appeal to the Christian audience, despite occassionally strong language and sexual tensions. However, like Andrew Greeley or Nelson DeMille, Ms. Goudge has succsessfully realized in her writing that Christians do not live in a whitewashed world and have flaws and issues just the same as secular people. ****