Touching Stars (A Shenandoah Album Novel, 4)

In TOUCHING STARS, author Emilie Richards again exhibits her wonderful ability to create realistic characters and interesting stories. This book is in her Shenandoah Album Series. All of the books in this series have some quilters living in the stories and there's always a quilt on a frame waiting to be finished. Gayle Fortman is the divorced mother of three sons. They make their home in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Gayle's a smart and very resourceful woman who also runs a successful Inn that she named Daughter of the Stars. Her former husband Eric is a well-known television newscaster who travels the world reporting on various stories. After the divorce their relationship has not been close, but usually friendly. Her biggest regret is that her boys never had a father who was there when they needed one. Over the years they had not see their father enough and his relationship with his youngest son is almost non-existent. When Eric experiences a horrible attack on his life in the Middle East, he is wounded and traumatized. Gayle invites him too stay and recuperate at the Inn. Having Eric with the family again causes many feelings of old resentments and also a longing for what could have been. It also makes them wonder if the family could be together again. TOUCHING STARS also contains a second story. A local summer day camp for teenagers is doing an archaeological dig on a nearby property. There is some mystery about the family that had lived there during the Civil War and the students and their teacher hope to find an answer to some old questions. This aspect of the book was particularly fascinating to me! The author's choice for the name of her Inn and the book's title came from the word SHENANDOAH which means "Daughter of the Stars," and it's the American Indian name used for both the river and the beautiful valley. The Inn also has numerous "star" quilts in many of the rooms. The other books in the Shenandoah Series are: WEDDING RING, ENDLESS CHAIN and LOVER'S KNOT. I recommend them all! Judith Miller

Touching Stars was one of those that you can't put down until it is finished. Reality was on every page, and everyday problems presented in a tasteful manner. It would be quite easy to put yourself in the place of the characters,. and coping with the young adults more than real.

This is the 4th of the Shenandoah Quilt series by Emilie Richards. Each book is great, this one is the heartwarming story of a divorced mother of three deals with the day to day running of a bed & breakfast will raising her sons. Then, her ex-husband comes back into her life. Will they get back together or is there someone new in her life? Each book stands alone, but if possible read them in order. Characters from previous books show up in each new one.

I loved the latest book in the Shenandoah series! It took a little while to become reacquainted with the characters, but I found them very interesting. I couldn't put it down!

Another EXCELLENT story from Emilie, hope there's another in the near future. While it's the fourth in the series you don't have to have read the first three to enjoy this one.