Threads of Love

I love compilation books that have a theme running through all the novellas in the book. And when four different authors can do this seamlessly, it's a huge bonus. So the book is Threads of Love, and the authors are: Frances Devine, Cynthia Hickey, Marilyn Leach, and Winter A. Peck.

Grams passed away a year ago, and now her four granddaughters must get together to finish a quilt she started. Her hopes are that her four daughters will overcome their hurts and reconcile their relationships, and that her four granddaughters will build relationships as friends as well as cousins.

Carla leaves a bit early to go back and reconnect with her home town while finishing her blocks. She takes the time to go back to the ice rink to enjoy a bit of her childhood that held good memories. She is encouraged by her former skating partner to reconsider training again. She tries it out but finds out that her partner hasn't given up his careless habits. Meanwhile back in Kansas, her boss is missing her like crazy. When he shows up to see her and make sure she's still coming back, she's surprised by his declarations and . . . .

Zoe decides to drive back and on the way her car breaks down. She had taken back roads, so there weren't any towns around. She decides to hunker down in her car and as luck would have it, her high school boyfriend happens along with a tow-truck. She has to come to terms with how she left him after high school and what life might have in store for her now. She convinces him to take her to her grandmother's so that she can meet her cousins and on the way they have an accident and he ends up with a concussion. But that's not all he ends up with . . . .

Danni flies in to spend a bit of extra time before meeting with her cousins. An old flame meets her at the airport and instead of going to her home where her mom has skipped out, she ends up going with him to his family's home for a few days. He is coming in from two tours in the Mid-East and is suffering from PTSD, but won't talk about it. She is on a medical leave of absence as a beach volleyball player because of a torn ACL surgery. She has to go down memory lane to find the quilt block her mother left for her to use and then she has to decide what to do about his proposition or proposal . . . .

Eve comes a bit early to spend some time reminiscing about Grams and to look over the quilt blocks she has, but before she gets an opportunity to look them over, the box containing them is stolen from her room while she is taking a shower. She calls on the hotel security who gives her a brush off because something more valuable has been stolen. For Eve, the blocks were just as valuable as the gilt covered box edged in pearls that was holding the blocks. She wants the security to take a more active role in finding her blocks and the security guard doesn't seem to be taking her seriously but he's drawn to her just the same. She starts following the man who helped her with her baggage and almost gets herself into a pickle . . . .

When the girls get together with their blocks and Grams' attorney tells them they have 72 hours to finish the quilt in order to inherit the $50,000 each. The girls spend some time talking about it and decide they want to compile the blocks into four quilts, so that each girl will have their memories of Grams to take with them, and memories of the weekend they are spending together. The attorney says that will fit in with the constraints of the will. And so . . . .

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a Quilt Block