Review: 1225 Christmas Tree Lane by Debbie Macomber

First line: “Mom!”

From the inside cover: Welcome to Christmas Town!

The people of Cedar Cove know how to celebrate Christmas. Like Grace and Olivia and everyone else, Beth Morehouse expects this Christmas to be one of her best. Her small Christmas-tree farm is prospering, her daughters and her dogs are happy and well, and her new relationship with local vet Ted Reynolds is showing plenty of romantic promise.

But…someone recently left a basket filled with puppies on her doorstep, puppies she’s determined to place in good homes. That’s complication number one. And number two is that her daughters Bailey and Sophie have invited their dad, Beth’s ex-husband, Kent, to Cedar Cove for Christmas. The girls have visions of a mom-and-dad reunion in their heads.

As always in life – and in Cedar Cove – there are surprises, too. More than one family’s going to have a puppy under the tree. More than one scheme will go awry. And more than one romance will have a happy ending!

My thoughts: This is the final installment of Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove series. I was excited to read this story (especially with those adorable puppies on the cover!), but at the same time, was reluctant to start it as it would be the last time I would get to visit these characters I’ve come to enjoy catching up with every so often.

1225 Christmas Tree Lane focuses on Beth Morehouse and we get to know her a bit better as she faces a hectic holiday season at her Christmas tree farm. As always, there are lots of things going on in her life, not just the busy business. Her college-age daughters are scheming to reunite her and her ex-husband by inviting him to Cedar Cove for Christmas, a pile of puppies has also been deposited with her that require time and effort at finding them all homes, and she is wondering if her relationship with the local vet has romantic promise.

While the focus of the book is on Beth and her family, as is fitting for the finale of a long running series, we get to catch up with other characters we have grown to love throughout the prior eleven books. The characters are all making plans for the holidays and reminiscing about events that have happened in their lives. I loved getting to see so many old favorites and wish there had been time to visit everyone.

I really enjoyed this series and I think the first book, 11 Lighthouse Road, was the very first Debbie Macomber book I read. Now, I have read so many of her books that there are only a handful I still need to get my hands on, which I have slowly been working on. I am eager to see what comes next for this author – she still has her Blossom Street series and I believe she is starting a brand new series. I can’t wait for that to start as I always know that whatever Debbie Macomber book I pick up, I enjoy!

(I borrowed this book from the library.)