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My darling Michael, I know this letter will come as a shock to you….
On the anniversary of his beloved wife's death, Dr. Michael Everett receives a letter Hannah had written him.
In it she reminds him of her love and makes one final request. An impossible request—I want you to marry again. She tells him he shouldn't spend the years he has left grieving her. And to that end she's chosen three women she asks him to consider.
First on Hannah's list is her cousin, Winter Adams, a trained chef who owns a café on Seattle's Blossom Street. The second is Leanne Lancaster, Hannah's oncology nurse. Michael knows them both. But the third name is one he's not familiar with—Macy Roth.
Each of these three women has her own heartache, her own private grief. More than a year earlier, Winter broke off her relationship with another chef. Leanne is divorced from a man who defrauded the hospital for which she works. And Macy lacks family of her own, the family she craves, but she's a rescuer of strays, human and animal. Macy is energetic, artistic, eccentric—and couldn't be more different from Michael.
During the months that follow, he spends time with Winter, Leanne and Macy, learning more about each of them…and about himself. Learning what Hannah already knew. He's a man who needs the completeness only love can offer. And Hannah's list leads him to the woman who can help him find it.
Debbie Macomber, with more than 100 million copies of her books sold worldwide, is one of today's most popular authors. The #1 New York Times bestselling author is best known for her ability to create compelling characters and bring their stories to life in her books. Debbie is a regular resident on numerous bestseller lists, including the New York Times (70 times and counting), USA TODAY (currently 67 times) and Publishers Weekly (47 times). Visit her at www.DebbieMacomber.com.
The years went on and the rejection letters piled up. Her family was living on a shoestring budget, and Debbie was beginning to think that her dreams of being a novelist might never be fulfilled. She began writing for magazines to earn some extra money, and she eventually saved up enough to attend a romance writer's conference with three hundred other aspiring novelists. The organizers of the conference picked ten manuscripts to review in a group critique session. Debbie was thrilled to learn that her manuscript would be one of the novels discussed.
Her excitement quickly faded when an editor from Harlequin tore her manuscript to pieces in front of the crowded room, evoking peals of laughter from the assembled writers. Afterwards, Macomber approached the editor and asked her what she could do to improve her novel. "Throw it away," the editor suggested.
Many writers would have given up right then and there, but not Macomber. The deeply religious Macomber took a lesson from Job and gathered strength from adversity. She returned home and mailed one last manuscript to Silhouette, a publisher of romance novels. "It cost $10 to mail it off," Macomber told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2000. "My husband was out of work at this time, in Alaska, trying to find a job. The children and I were living on his $250-a-week unemployment, and I can't tell you what $10 was to us at that time."
It turned out to be the best $10 Macomber ever spent. In 1984, Silhouette published her novel, Heartsong. (Incidentally, although Heartsong was Macomber's first sale, she actually published another book, Starlight, before Heartsong went to print.) Heartsong went on to become the first romance novel to ever be reviewed in Publishers Weekly, and Macomber was finally on her way.
Today, Macomber is one of the most widely read authors in America. A regular on the New York Times bestseller charts, she is best known for her Cedar Cove novels, a heartwarming story sequence set in a small town in Washington state, and for her Knitting Books series, featuring a group of women who patronize a Seattle yarn store. In addition, her backlist of early romances, including several contemporary Westerns, has been reissued with great success.
Macomber has made a successful transition from conventional romance to the somewhat more flexible genre known as "women's fiction." "I was at a point in my life where I found it difficult to identify with a 25-year-old heroine," Macomber said in an interview with ContemporaryRomanceWriters.com. "I found that I wanted to write more about the friendships women share with each other." To judge from her avid, ever-increasing fan base, Debbie's readers heartily approve.
"I'm dyslexic, although they didn't have a word for it when I was in grade school. The teachers said I had 'word blindness.' I've always been a creative speller and never achieved good grades in school. I graduated from high school but didn't have the opportunity to attend college, so I did what young women my age did at the time -- I married. I was a teenager, and Wayne and I (now married nearly 37 years) had four children in five years."
"I'm a yarnaholic. That means I have more yarn stashed away than any one person could possibly use in three or four lifetimes. There's something inspiring about yarn that makes me feel I could never have enough. Often I'll go into my yarn room (yes, room!) and just hold skeins of yarn and dream about projects. It's a comforting thing to do."
"My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers -- it's what my children call my ‘dead author wall.' I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few."
"I'm morning person, and rip into the day with a half-mile swim (FYI: a half mile is a whole lot farther in the water than it is on land) at the local pool before I head into the office, arriving before eight. It takes me until nine or ten to read through all of the guest book entries from my web site and the mail before I go upstairs to the turret where I do my writing. Yes, I write in a turret -- is that romantic, or what? I started blogging last September and really enjoy sharing bits and pieces of my life with my readers. Once I'm home for the day, I cook dinner, trying out new recipes. Along with cooking, I also enjoy eating, especially when the meal is accompanied by a glass of good wine. Wayne and I take particular pleasure in sampling eastern Washington State wines (since we were both born and raised in that part of the state).
I am not a sentimental guy. I've been known to forget Mother's Day and, once, when Hannah and I were dating, I even let Valentine's go unnoticed. Fortunately she didn't take my lapse too seriously or see it as any reflection of my feelings. As for anniversaries and birthdays, I'm a lost cause. In fact, I'd probably overlook Christmas if it wasn't for all the hoopla. It's not that I'm self-absorbed… Well, maybe I am, but aren't we all to a certain extent?
To me, paying a lot of attention to people because it's their birthday or some made-up holiday is ridiculous. When you love someone, you need to show that love each and every day. Why wait for a certain time of year to bring your wife flowers? Action really does speak louder than words, especially if it's a loving deed, something you do for no particular reason. Except that you want to. Because you care.
Hannah taught me that. Hannah. A year ago today, May eighth, I lost her, my beautiful thirty-six-year-old wife. Even now, a whole year after her death, I can't think of her without my gut twisting into knots.
A year. Three hundred and sixty-five lonely days and empty nights.
A few days after her death, I stood over Hannah's casket and watched as it was lowered into the ground. I threw the first shovelful of dirt into her grave. I'll never forget that sound. The hollow sound of earth hitting the coffin's gleaming surface.
Not an hour passes that I don't remember Hannah. Actually, that's an improvement. In those first few months, I couldn't keep her out of my head for more than a minute. Everything I saw or heard reminded me of Hannah.
To simply say I loved her would diminish the depth of my feelings. In every way she completed me. Without her, my world is bleak and colorless and a thousand other adjectives that don't begin to describe the emptiness I've felt since she's been gone.
I talk to her constantly. I suppose I shouldn't tell people that. We've had this ongoing one-sided conversation from the moment she smiled up at me one last time and surrendered her spirit to God.
So, here I am a year later, pretending to enjoy the Seattle Mariners' baseball game when all I can think about is my wife. My one-year-dead wife.
Ritchie, Hannah's brother and my best friend, invited me to share box seats for this game. I'm not fooled. I'm well aware that my brother-in-law didn't include me out of some mistaken belief that I'm an inveterate baseball fan. He knows exactly what anniversary this is.
I might not be sentimental, but this is one day I can't forget.
As a physician, a pediatrician, I'm familiar with death. I've witnessed it far too often and it's never easy, especially with children. Even when the end is peaceful and serene as it was with Hannah, I feel I've been cheated, that I've lost.
As a teenager I was involved in sports. I played football in the fall, basketball in winter and baseball in the spring, and worked as a lifeguard during the summers. The competitive spirit is a natural part of who I am. I don't like to lose, and death, my adversary, doesn't play fair. Death took Hannah from me, from all of us, too early. She was the most vibrant, joyful, loving woman I have ever known. I've been floundering ever since.
Although I've fought death, my enemy, from the day I became a doctor—it's why I became a doctor—I learned to understand it in a different, more complex way. I learned death can be a friend even while it's the enemy. As she lay dying, Hannah, who loved me so completely and knew me so well, showed me that ultimate truth.
A year's time has given me the perspective to realize I did my wife a disservice. My biggest regret is that I refused to accept the fact that she was dying. As a result I held on to her far longer than I should have. I refused to relinquish her when she was ready to leave me. Selfishly, I couldn't bear to let her go.
Even when she'd drifted into unconsciousness I sat by her bedside night and day unable to believe that there wouldn't be a miracle. It's stupid; as a medical professional I certainly know better. Yet I clung to her. Now I realize that my stubbornness, my unwillingness to release her to God, held back her spirit. Tied her to earth. To me.
Jan123hello
Posted Fri Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2010
I just finished reading the ARC this morning of Debbie Macombers' "Hannah's List" and enjoyed every moment reading this book. Most of this book is written in the first person of Dr. Michael Everett. I found reading a man's point of view throughout the story very refreshing. His late wife Hannah leaves him a "list" of 3 women she wants him to meet, one is Winter Adams ( a character from one of the Blossom Street books), the second is Leanne Lancaster (who was Hannah's oncology nurse), and the third woman is Macy Roth, a gal he never met, but only saw at a distance at his wife's funeral.
I absolutely love Debbie Macombers' books. She is such a talented writer, and I wish her books in the Blossom Street series came out more than once a year!
Thank you Debbie Macomber for this wonderful book, I could not put it down!
16 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.My Synopsis:
Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber
It has been one year since Dr. Michael Everett's wife Hannah, died from cancer. He is still mourning her death when he is given a letter that Hannah left for him to be delivered a year after her death. The letter speaks of her love for her husband and that hope that he can move on with his life and find love again. Not only does Hannah want him to move on, but she has left a list of three women that she believes would make him happy and complete his life. Knowing that Michael would have trouble moving on, Hannah believed this letter would spur him on and let him know that she wanted him to have a wife and a family.
Michael is stunned that Hannah could have loved him so much that she left this list before she died. But, can he move on? Is he ready to leave his love for Hannah behind? Which one of these women can help him find love again? A cousin of his wife's, a nurse who helped her through her last days or the whimsical and beautiful model?
My Thoughts:
Debbie Macomber is one of my favorite authors for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is because her contemporary romances are rooted in events that are happening to real people in our day and time. Though I love historical romance, sometimes it's nice to read a book about characters that we can identify with and situations that could actually happen in our own lives.
Very few people in this day and age have not been touched by cancer in some way. This novel is more about the struggle for those left behind, to go on with their lives and how difficult that can be sometimes. Michael's character is very poignant and touching. His love for Hannah was real and deep and him moving on seems almost like a sacrilege. But, he begins to realize that he still has a lot of love in his heart to give.
He feels that he has a duty to Hannah to at least talk to the three women on the list but, as he begins to find out more about them he is confused as to why she chose each one. The women in the story have struggles of their own. In the end Michael finds the woman who he believes that ultimately he should spend the rest of his life with and he knows that Hannah would approve. This is a story that may sound a little sad, but it's not. It's about moving on and learning to love again after tragedy. I liked it a lot and I know you will too.
8 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Renee90
Posted Tue Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2010
Hannah's List ranks up there with the best of the best by Debbie Macomber. I really enjoyed reading this book!
It was such a unique love story ~ the plot was intriguing and held me captive till the end.
In true Debbie Macomber fashion, her characters were very realistic and I cried and laughed with each of them throughout the whole story.
All I can say is....
Read this book ~ you will really, really enjoy it!
Many thanks to Kim M. from Nancy Berland Public Relations, Inc for allowing me the wonderful opportunity of review this book!
7 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.hannahprescott
Posted Fri Apr 30 00:00:00 EDT 2010
I Also Recommend:
Thirty-six year old Hannah Everett dies from ovarian cancer after a long, painful battle. She leaves behind a letter to her beloved pediatrician husband, Michael, that he is to open one year after her death. (P.S. I LOVE YOU)
Thus begins his struggle, on the road to realize that life needs to go on after loss and that you can find happiness again. A lovely heartwarming story! I loved it...(and P.S. I LOVE YOU TOO!!)
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2010
I Also Recommend:
This book will pull at your heart strings the moment you read the first page. It's refreshing to read a love story through the eyes of a loving, devoted husband. You will instantly fall in love with Dr. Michael Everett and will be cheering him on and shedding a few tears during his road to recovery. You will surely not want to put this book down!
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Wed May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Wake up!!
2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Hannah died last year, but she left her husband a letter to be opened on the anniversary of her death. He opens it to find an expression of love and something he never thought he'd find - a list of three women Hannah wants him to date. She wants him to move on and knows that this past year, he's been going through the motions, but not really living.
She knows him well. He's extremely reluctant to follow her advice. The first woman on the list is her cousin who owns a cafe on Blossom Street. He wanders into the cafe on morning for coffee. She isn't there, but he leaves a message at the counter.
The next woman is a nurse who made Hannah's last days comfortable. Michael speaks with her at a hospital children's picnic. She's recently divorced herself and understand what he's going through. They agree to dinner later in the week.
The third woman he calls cold, asking her to come into to paint a mural on the wall at his office. When she arrives late, he remembers her from the funeral. Everything about this woman annoys him and he can't understand how she made Hannah's List. He hires her and now must deal with seeing her in his office until she completes her project.
Will one of these women help him come out of his shell and bring him back to life?
I adore the Blossom Street series. They're adorable and heartwarming. I can't decide which one I like best. This one was amazing as well. I was a little shocked to see this book written in majority from a male perspective, but it works.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.In Seattle thirty-six year old Hannah Everett dies from ovarian cancer after a long battle. She leaves behind a letter to her beloved pediatrician husband, Michael that he is to open one year after her death.
On the first anniversary of Hannah's death, Michael reads her note to him. She pleads with him to get on with his life as he has grieved long enough. She wants him to actively seek a new wife. Hannah suggests he consider three candidates for his second spouse: her cousin Chef Winter Adams; her oncologist nurse Leanne Lancaster or eccentric artist Macy Roth. Michael goes out with each of the women but each quickly recognizes that his heart is buried with his late spouse.
Although some readers will question how fast Michael acts on his beloved deceased wife's final request, fans will enjoy this strong look at grieving as the lead protagonist tries to move on as his spouse requested with the three women she suggested. Michael is fully developed so that the audience understands his concerns and fears while Hannah is only seen through his eyes and the letter. The tree candidates are developed to different degrees, which makes it easy to know the ending relatively early on. Michael hooks the readers throughout as he struggles with choosing from Hannah's List because he is unsure if he can.
Harriet Klausner
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Mon May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Currently still reading but loving every page
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013
"Deevs?"
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Tue Mar 26 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Sorry but you guys ignored me for to long...goes to lighten
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Wed Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2010
I Also Recommend:
Why a zipped-up, widower doctor would fall in love with a loony, flaky artist is both unlikely and not believable. This book is just silly. Need I say more?
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2014
I'm loving it so far :) keep goin'... *gentle shove*
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Posted Tue Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2014
-he did something horrible to my ribs. I can't lay on my stomach now, because my ribs start to lightly touch my lungs (not enough to cause internal bleeding, of course.) It hurts, and I can't breathe after a certain period of time. It's horrible. But I recall some good memories. Like our neighbours Matt and Shawn McGuire. (Is that how you spell it?) They were half-white, half-mexican. Matt was really short, with black hair. Shawn was a little taller, with more lighter skin than a mexican, and dark brown hair with random parts of his hair dirty blonde. Shawn reminds me or Darryl off of The Walking Dead (which by the way, for any Walking Dead fans, DARRYL IS SO HOT!) They had little siblings. Dakota. Caylee. And Hunter. Dakota always had a crush on me. But he was two years younger. He asked me out once, but I told him no. Matt d Shawn had really inappropriate minds. If anyone RPes with me, you now know where I got my mind-set from. I never knew what se<_>x, rape, or anything was until I hung out with them. There was this huge styrofoam block out in their back yard. They named 'her' Shirley, and my brother Joseph (Joe) and Matt+Shawn would sit on top of it, and hu<_>mp it, yelling things about Shirley. Pretty perverted, right? Yeah... Matt loved Basketball and Football. I did too. But my brothers didn't always wanna hang out. So me, Matt, and Shawn would hang out alone. Matt and I always played Basketball alot. I would beat him, and he'd get so pissed. Shawn would laugh at him and tell him that he just got beat by a girl. Matt had anger issues, so when his brother said something teasing, Matt took it to heart and would punch him or something. Not enough to hurt his own brother, but enough to get him to shut up. And Football was fun too. The street was a backroad, so hardly yone drove on it. He'd be like "go long!" I couldn't ever 'go long.' I'd go to back-up, and I couldn't ever be fast enough to get the ball. So he beat me at Football pretty well. Sometimes, we'd just sit and talk about life. Shawn didn't really talk much though, unless he was mad. So he'd listen to me and Matt talk. We were in the same grade. The bus would come to pick us up and drop us off too. Bus 4. Our bus driver's name was Peggy. She was such a bi<_>tch. She was old and cranky. Like, in her 50's. Ugh. The people on our bus were so profane and igrnorant. Peggy would start screaming at them at times. It was pretty funny....I got from moving all the way from moving, to here? Wow. lol. Well, I moved in sixth grade. To a new town, away from my grandparents. Fredericktown, Missouri. My sister Jaimee and her boyfriend then, Dustin, were going to move in with us. They ended up fighting and didn't move in with us. We stayed there two years. Over those two years, I was horribly bullied. Horribly. My mom and dad decided I needed to be taken out of school. So, I got taken out of school at the end of sixth grade. I went back next year in seventh grade. I was doing great in school, though behind a tad in math. Gah...My brother talked my mom into being taken out of school, and I didn't want to be alone. So I begged her to take me out of school as well, stupidly. She took us out of school, and I missed eighth grade school year as well, still homeschooled. I'm going into ninth grade this year...but due to my mom's mistakes, I might not be able to go back to school. And if I do go back, there's a big chance I'll be held back, so I'll be in eigth grade... <p> more at next res...
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Posted Sun Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2014
This book was a complete letdown. The story was not believable by any stretch of the imagination. Too bad it's part of the Blossom Street series. It could stand alone. If a fan of the series chose to skip this one, I don't believe you would miss anything. I wish I had skipped it.
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Posted Sun Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Merh
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Posted Mon Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2013
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Anonymous
Posted Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Gtg bbt
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2013
I can work here part time and supply milk.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Thu Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Me
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
My darling Michael, I know this letter will come as a shock to you….
On the anniversary of his beloved wife's death, Dr. Michael Everett receives a letter Hannah had written him.
In it she reminds him of her love and makes one final request. An impossible request—I want you to marry again. She tells him he shouldn't spend the years he has left grieving her. And to that end she's chosen three women she asks him...