Not my favorite Negger's book. Loved the librarian and secret room mystery. Too many extra stories going on and felt like I was watching a tv show being fast forwarded.

I liked it! Not as much as the first one. I wanted to see more Dylan and Olivia as I really enjoyed their characters but they seemed like they were a backdrop.
I love the descriptive scenes and it makes you feel like you are right there in the countryside.
I rolled my eyes a bit at the "knight in shining armor" type of cheesy romance but I still enjoyed it. Considering I am a horror fan, this was a nice break from my normal taste of gore. :) ( )

That Night on Thistle Lane is the second book in the Swift River Valley series and will have to go back and read the first - Secrets of the Lost Summer; however appears as could be a standalone.
A romance novel (which typically I am not a huge fan); however, she is a good storyteller and makes you feel like a fairy tale of Cinderella. A small town life about Phoebe and her mother and sisters and seemed to be long and drawn out and hard to hold interest --agree with the other reviewers as not a lot of passion between Noah and Phoebe or substance. This was my first read by this author. Not my type of book; however always like to try new authors and styles.
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I was so excited to be one of the winners of the Spring Fever Book Giveaway, receiving this title signed by Carla Neggers. It's amazing to see your name as one of the winners announced on Facebook but when the book arrives in your mailbox it's absolute bliss!
I am a former librarian and one of my work experiences was as an assistant director/children's librarian in a public library in a very old building. It was so easy to picture Librarian Phoebe O'Dunn's discovery of the mysterious hidden room. The story is rich in so many ways but particularly expressing love of family, friendships that grow even deeper as they evolve, children now in their adult years becoming more aware of the past experiences of their parents and deepening their love and appreciation, and the true beauty of loving relationships growing in the midst of a changing world.
I love all of Carla Neggers books but this will remain as one of my top favorites! ( )

I was really hoping for more from this one. Even though the first book in the series didn't really do it for me, this one looked promising. There was a librarian involved! And a hidden sewing room! And old fashioned clothing, some of it patterned after dresses in movies! In the end, though, it left me with an overall feeling of...meh.

Much like with the first in the series, while reading this one I kept feeling as if the novel was hovering on the edge of being pretty good but it just never quite got there. The characters stubbornly felt like characters throughout, not achieving the status of actual people to this reader. I just couldn't connect. The drama wasn't there (Seriously--I missed their first kiss. When it came up in Phoebe's thoughts, I actually had to page back and find it), and I never really bought into Phoebe and Noah's initial attraction, let alone their "love" for each other. I kept checking the progress bar on my ereader, and not in the yikes-how-will-they-resolve-this-in-the-time-that-is-left kind of way but in a jeesh-how-much-more-of-this-is-left fashion. The big reveal at the end wasn't, really. The characters figure it out behind the scenes, and I still didn't quite understand how they did it, and nor did I care all that much. It just ended up feeling a bit silly and anticlimactic. I actually found myself somewhat more interested in Brandon's (Phoebe's brother-in-law) love life than the main characters', but I'm pretty sure that was only because he was a former hockey player, and I'm just so darn glad that the season is back on track.... ( )