I just laid down to start reading A Gathering Place and was reading the introduction from Thomas Kinkade and he says "In A Gathering Place you will see hard times for Lucy and Charlie Bates...moments of suffering and doubt for Reverend Ben...hard decisions to be faced by Emily Warwick and Dan Forbes...and the entire town will experience a sad and profound loss."
I usually wait until after I finish the book to write down my thoughts, but after reading that paragraph, I wanted to start this entry a little differently, with my predictions, then come back after I'm done reading and see how close I was in my predictions.
I think Lucy and Charlie Bates will continue to have problems in their marriage.....I'm not sure if Lucy will end up leaving him or not...I know she was considering it in the last book, so it is a possibility.
I think Reverend Ben's will be centered around his son, Mark. I predict that Mark will continue to stay in contact with them, but continue to let them down, as he already has.
I think that Emily and Dan will get into a relationship, but Emily wants to start a family, and based on the synopsis on the book cover, she isn't so sure that Dan will want to start all over again, so I think the decisions they will face will have to do with that.
And the profound loss that the entire town experiences will either be something happening to one of the town's landmarks- Possibly another storm. Or it could even be someone moving away or dying. My first thought was Lillian, but then I just realized there was talk in the last book about Gus Potter not doing too well.
I can't wait to start reading and find out what really happens.
UPDATE..........................................
I finished the book on 9/30/07 at 12:00am.
A lot happened in A Gathering Place
The book begins on Thanksgiving Day, the day that Digger went missing for the first time. Everyone goes out to search for him and it is Luke that ends up finding him. He has this feeling that Digger is there, and everyone else dismisses his feelings and goes on. Luke ends up being right. It is then that the doctors do some tests and discover that Digger has been having little strokes that have been causing forgetfullness, and as a result, he can't be allowed to leave the house on his own anymore. This causes a tough time for Digger and Grace. At one point Grace let him go to the store to get paint, and Digger thought he was supposed to go to work, so he ended up missing again, this time they found him at the cottages.
Sarah gets a job at The Messenger. She was really excited at first, but it's not as easy as she expected, but as time goes on, it gets better. And she even agrees that she's going to stay in Cape Light and keep her job.
Carolyn and Reverend Lewis still are dealing with Mark, which causes then a lot of tension and frustration Carolyn is on her way to the hospital to see Rachel, who has gone into labor, when she has a stroke while driving. She is then in a coma for a couple days. It is then when Mark finally decides to come home. Rachel has her baby, and despite some complications with the baby's position during labor, the baby is fine.
Elizabeth and Dan have their share of problems. Dan is too stubborn to admit his feelings for Emily. Since finding Sarah, Emily realizes that she's missing something in her life. She wants a second chance at life. She wants to get married and have a baby, so she can have a chance to raise a child. She's too afraid to confide in Dan because she thinks he's ready to rush off on his trip once his foot gets better. Dan is a little taken aback, but soon realizes he doesn't want to think about Emily being with anyone else.
Sarah and Luke have a similar problem. Both are too stubborn to admit their feelings for one another. Sarah is thinking that she won't be around for long and thinks that with everything else going on in her life, she can't deal with a relationship too...as strong as her feelings for Luke may be. Luke loves her, but is too stubborn to admit it, instead he gets jealous when he sees Sarah with Wyatt. He ends up leaving Cape Light for a new job, because he figures Sarah will be leaving soon anyway. He ends up coming back though, because he realizes how strong he was. Luckily for him, Sarah is not leaving either.
SOOO.....my predictions and whether I was right or not...
Lucy did end up leaving Charlie and taking her boys to her Mother's house for awhile....I think Charlie learned a big lesson, and agreed to seek counseling and learn to control his temper. At the end of the book, Lucy did go back to him. I'll be interested to hear more about this in the next book.
And my predictions about Reverend Lewis and his family were mostly true. Mark did continue to let them down. I thought it was pretty callous of him to accept the offer for the plane tickets and then not come...I can understand how Carolyn felt, although I don't really agree with the way Reverend Lewis handled it when he and Mark finally did come face to face at the hospital. I was surprised to hear about Carolyn and her strokes. I sure wasn't expecting that. And I was especially happy that she survived and was able to meet her grandson. I'm hoping that she and Mark can sit down and have a talk and come to terms with each other. I hope for Carolyn's sake, Mark continues to keep in touch with them.
Emily and Dan's situation didn't really surprise me. I was right, for the most part. I think Dan was too stubborn to realize his feelings. But, in my heart, I knew he wouldn't end up going on the trip anyway. I'm so happy for Emily that she's finally getting a second chance. I hope she and Sarah can also become closer than they already are. I think I'm even starting to see a softer side of Lillian too. Maybe it is just me. I was surprised that she came to Jessica and Sam's on Christmas Eve. I thought for sure she wouldn't. The fact that she did says a lot. And I was very touched when she gave Sarah that photo album for Christmas. Back to Emily and Dan, I predict that in the next book, they'll get married. I would also like to see her get pregnant. I could see them adopting too. Maybe J essica and Sam could have a baby at the same time, so they'd have cousins the same age.
Aside from those things though, I really didn't see what great loss the company suffered. At times, I thought Reverend Lewis was going to leave the ministry, or that Digger and/or Carolyn were going to die. I also predicted that Dan would sell the Messenger, the community's newspaper. But I'm not sure what loss there was.
I loved Lindsey...I was so happy when Dan came to his senses and gave her the paper. It was obvious from the beginning that Wyatt wanted nothing to do with it. Why didn't Dan ever think of offering Lindsey the paper? I think that really hurt her? I didn't really like Wyatt and felt that Jessica was much better with Luke than with him. I think Luke's jealousy was a definite sign that he was in love with Jessica no matter what he said.
I didn't really like Molly...she seems really hard-tongued and hard to get along with....she seems like one of those people where you never know where you stand with them.
I didn't really like Sarah's adoptive parents. They seemed really selfish and they didn't realize how hard this was for Sarah. I was glad that Sarah stood her ground and decided to stay in Cape Light.
So my predictions for A New Leaf would be a couple weddings in the future: Emily and Dan, and Jessica and Luke. Not sure who will make it to the altar first.
Started 9/26/07
finished 9/30/07 12:00 am
Moving on to: A New Leaf
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