The Brightest Star by Fern Michaels
Starts out with Lauren and she researches and writes other bio's. She's good at her job and loves the work. When she gets the call from her mother about her fathers failing health she sells everything and heads home to Fallen Pines, NC. She then runs the shop for them. The shop has been in the family for years and it has a bit of everything anybody would ever need.
Lots of fancy hand crafted items: scarves, hats, mittens, glass ornaments and it's Christmas Time. She knows the family has to get on the band wagon and advertise online. She has to also put her own money into the venture just to keep it going through the holidays.
She places an ad and a man walks in that grabs her attention. He wants all the hand made music boxes, they cost him a fortune and notices his name. She runs into him again at the diner and again other places. She gets a call from her agent and comes to an agreement about her next assignment.
A CEO of a company that sells online only so she starts doing her research. She also has 3 girls come in one day to buy one ailing mother a gift, an angel and Lauren has the perfect thing for her. She recalls going to high school with Lee and offers them a treasured afghan she was going to keep for herself that her mom had made. She learns more about the girls mom and in her mind she knows with the money from her work she can afford to help them.
She gets that plan in action also calling on others to help out. Her parents and others try to get her to date but she has no time for all that and has to reassure her mom she is not gay. It was a funny time in the story when everything looked so dismal. Love the trip to Settle as we have just returned from there and views are priceless.
Love where the story goes from there and how she, like us appreciate a home cooked meal while on the road.
Loved hearing of all the items in the shop and about her father's progression with his disease... So many help her in this book, a village of people, friends, family and acquaintances to make it all work. Love that this book covers a lot of different age groups and their specific problems.
Not as predictable as the authors other works so really enjoyed this one and can't wait to read more.
I received this review book from Net Galley and this is my honest opinion.

#TheBrightestStar #NetGalley ( )

I'm so bummed out by this book. I was so happy to receive this book in a giveaway and it was set to be my first holiday read of the (pre)season, but it was quite quickly a DNF for me. I rarely DNF books, I plug away (sometimes grudgingly) but this one I just couldn't get in to and it was tough to get past something. The pace was a bit slow. The characters, location and story that was being set was not one that I was engaged with. The ultimate clincher to being tossed aside was the "mean girl" behavior of the leading character and her friend. The way they spoke about an overweight librarian just seemed inappropriate or perhaps hit too close to home. To body shame at this time in our culture seems outdated and unnecessary.

I'll pass this book along to another ready thru a Little Free Library donation and hope someone else enjoys it. ( )