Jamie Monroe owns the "Chocolate Bar," a chocolate shop on
a no-name street in Heart Lake, Washington. "Sweet
Somethings Bakery," owned by Jamie's aunt, Sarah Goodwin, is
in the same area as is "Emma's Quilt Corner," which is
owned by Jamie's best friend, Emma Swanson. Each woman
has an ache in her heart right now.
Jamie has just returned to Heart Lake following a brief and
abusive marriage to a Los Angeles cop, who enjoyed using
his wife as a punching bag. The Chocolate Bar is doing
well, thank goodness, and she has sworn off of men, so no
worry about personal problems.
Sarah is grieving over her daughter's family moving to
upstate New York. She misses her granddaughters, Katie
and Adeline, something fierce. Sarah and her husband Sam
now have an empty nest for sure, which Sam sees as a new
adventure for them.
Emma's Quilt Corner isn't making ends meet, but Emma
doesn't want her family or Jamie and Sarah to know this.
She knows that by the first of the year she will have to
close her shop and spend the next umpteen years paying off
her business loans. Like Jamie, Emma goes home to an
empty house at night, but unlike her friend, Emma would
love to have a man in her life.
At their weekly chocolate fix Jamie, Sarah, and Emma bemoan
the fact that their town is growing too fast and has lost a
lot of its charm and friendliness. They come up with the
idea of holding a town meeting and suggesting that every
citizen do one good deed a day. Sarah holds a cookie
making class for four little girls, and this somewhat eases
the pain of not seeing Katie and Addie on a daily basis.
Jamie befriends two motherless little girls, but their
father would like her attention also. Unfortunately, no
matter how nice and good looking that he is, he is also a
cop, and that's a no-no for Jamie. Emma takes pity on an
elderly woman who always forgets her checkbook. This is a
good deed Emma can't afford, and the "forgotten" checkbook
story is getting old.
But, the good deed idea is catching on in the community,
and comes full circle when Emma has a going-out-of-business
sale. ANGEL LANE is now the name of the three friend's
no-name-street and is also a beautifully written story that
is populated with real and charming people.
That’s exactly
what three small-town shop owners hope to do when they
launch their crazy-ambitious "Have a Heart"
campaign—asking neighbors to commit one random act of
kindness every day. Emma, Sarah, and Jamie love their
lakeside community, but the little town is growing too big
too fast, and a doing a good deed never hurt anyone. Or
so they thought...
When Emma slashes prices at her
quilt shop, practically giving away blankets to anyone who
looks vaguely cold, she almost stitches her way into
bankruptcy. Sarah’s free cooking class boils down to a
hotbed of crime when some punk kid swipes her favorite
heirloom. And at Jamie’s chocolate shop, things take a
bittersweet turn when a local policeman starts giving her
grief, stirring up feelings she’s tried to forget—and
slowly melts away her defenses...
With irresistible
humor, warmth, affection—and recipes!—author Sheila
Roberts serves up a generous, open-hearted story about the
friendships we make, the chances we take, and the lives we
touch every day.
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