The End Of An Era

Happy Ever After In Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen is another wonderful offering that will wrap around you as you read. It is the ninth and final book in the Bellbird Bay series which has been a total delight. Each visit has felt like a hug in a book and I am sorry that the series has ended.

Bellbird Bay is a place we all want to visit – if only for a few hours as we sink into the books. Bellbird Bay is a place of community, care and compassion. It is where people look out for each other as lives are entwined.

It is a pure delight to meet up with familiar faces as we focus in on a different main character in each book. All are absolutely charming, likable and realistic. I love the fact that many of the characters are over fifty and show that life is for living and having fun whatever your age.

We see the new set of problems that elderly parents bring – dementia that robs us of our loved one’s piece by piece while they are still alive. Also, there is the problem of diminishing independence after an accident, meaning that assisted lived is needed. This is met with stubbornness and fear – fear of selling the family home and losing memories. “I remember Mum there … but you’d take your memories with you.” Memories are always portable.

At the opposite end of the scale, we meet a teen from Britain whose father wants him to study law but this is stifling. “What a relief it is to get out from under Dad’s expectations for me.” People should be free to live their own dreams.

There are accidental misunderstandings as well as deliberate misdirection. Both threaten to derail lives. And there is match-making as happy fulfilled couples believe their loved ones need a push in order to find a partner.

I have adored my trips to Bellbird Bay. It feels like the end of an era but I am looking forward to greeting familiar faces as they pop up in Maggie Christensen’s new series set in the nearby fictional town of Pelican Crossing.

I received a free copy from the author and Rachel’s Random Resources for a blog tour. A favorable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

JULIA WILSON

Happy Ever After in Bellbird Bay

It’s been over twenty years since Cass Marshall’s relationship fell apart, and she returned home to Bellbird Bay. Now, although happy with the success of her beachwear business, Cass often longs for someone special to share her life.

Nursing the wounds of a failed marriage, Mick Roberts has finally accepted his ex has moved on with her life. Determined to avoid his daughter’s attempts at matchmaking, he immerses himself in his whale-watching business.

When family sickness brings the two together, Cass wonders if her life is about to take a turn for the better. But with Mick’s ex-wife also being Cass’s best friend, a seed of doubt emerges.

This doubt intensifies when Cass’s recently widowed ex arrives in town, determined to use any means to drive a wedge between Cass and Mick as he fights for a second chance.

Can Bellbird Bay work its magic again and provide a happy ever after for Cass and Mick, or are they destined to spend the rest of their lives alone?

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Author Bio –

After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing romantic women’s fiction, feel good stories of second chances. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Maggie has been called the queen of mature age fiction and her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.

From the small town in Scotland where she grew up, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call to ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!

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