APART AT THE SEAMS is the newest book by Marie Bostwick. It's part of her long running Cobbled Court Quilts series. (If you're new to Ms. Bostwick's books don't worry you can read this and not feel lost at all). If you're like me you're married and facing an empty nest, and wondering what this new phase in your marriage will hold. Gayla Oliver, the main character in APART AT THE SEAMS is in this phase of her life. Her twins are gone and establishing careers and lives without Gayla and her husband Brian.

Gayla thinks things are going along quite smoothly until one day while attempting to multitask she accidentally opens a file on the computer she shares with Brian, and finds a note he wrote to her, but never sent. The note she finds tells her that Brian is not only unhappy in the marriage but he had an affair that is over, but he wants out.

Gayla of course is stunned and angry, and automatically reacts. She's not sure what the next step is, but know she needs to distance herself from Brian while she figures it out. She runs to their cottage in New Bern. A place Brian suggested they buy for weekend get aways, but as life has intruded and work pressures have built for both the place has been neglected, and Gayla turns her destructive anger into constructive anger in sprucing up the house and becoming a part of the New Bern community.

Those of us who have followed the series for a while know that the ladies of the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop have nothing but the best interests of their neighbors and community in mind. With this knowledge we know that when they welcome Gayle into their inner circle she is bound to come to conclusions that will be hard won and regardless of what the outcome of her marriage might be they will make Gayla a better stronger person.

I believe that it takes a special insight to take a group of women and continue to make them loving, caring, adaptable characters that readers will love forward to revisiting time and time again. Ms. Bostwick has this insight, and makes the characters she writes about into people you can only hope to run into, and are disappointed when you don't! As I said at the beginning of this review this is a series you can truly jump into in the middle and not feel lost at all. APART AT THE SEAMS is a book that will have you reflecting on your life and being grateful for the bumps and bruises you've surely suffered along the way, because as Gayla finds out what doesn't break you makes you stronger, and we all know that those who read romance are strong people be they women or men.