Retire in Alaska

Twilight's Serenade (Song of Alaska Series, Book 3)

Description

Britta Lindquist left Sitka six years ago in an attempt to distance herself from the love of her life, Yuri Belikov. Upon her return, she finds Yuri absent and his wife about to deliver a child. When tragic circumstances ensue, Britta suddenly finds herself caring for Yuri's children--and her life intertwining with the man she's tried so hard to forget. But Britta's other great love is for the violin, and her talent is recognized by Brenton Maltese, a conductor from England. He proposes she accept the coveted first chair position in his orchestra...and also his hand in marriage. At a crossroads, Britta must determine what her heart truly longs for--and if she's willing to fight for it.

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-08-23
Summary: "3rd in Songs of Alaska series offers satisfying conclusion"

Twilight's Serenade by Tracie Peterson is the third book in the Songs of Alaska series. Britta Lindquist has returned home to Sitka, Alaska, after spending six years on tour playing her violin around the world. She has a difficult choice to make: marry Brenton Maltese and accept his invitation to be first chair in a new orchestra in London, or stay home with her large family and try to get over her life-long love for Yuri Belikov. When she arrives home, she quickly finds herself helping Yuri's wife give birth to their second child, but tragedy strikes, and Yuri and Britta find their lives entwined in ways that neither of them ever expected. For the most part, Peterson does a terrific job getting first time readers up to speed on the history, although Lydia's coldness toward Marston was a bit hard to swallow without knowing more about their backstory. Britta is a terrific heroine, fierce in her love, devoted to her family, and with an enormous amount of heart. Peterson throws in a devastating twist that will break readers' hearts. It's a satisfying conclusion to a epic story about the Lindquist family that ends with everyone happily ever after.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-20
Summary: "Song of Alaska Series"

I thoroughly enjoyed this series. The books contained some good spiritual lessons and it was difficult to put them down.

---

Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2010-08-04
Summary: "Not the Author's Best"

Before I begin this review, I would like to note that I only just now realized that I have not read the second book this series. I have no idea how I did this, as I normally try to read all books in a series before reviewing the newest addition. As such, this makes a lot of sense when I look back on this story as to why I was totally confused as to who characters were and why in the world so much had time had passed since the first book. Therefore I will soon need to go back and read the second book in this series to read about what I have missed.

Even with that out of the way, I unfortunately did not really enjoy reading this book. This is sad because normally I really enjoy reading Tracie Peterson's novels. I have read about 95% of all her books, and believe me she's written A LOT of books. However, this one just did not really fit with me. For starters, the synopsis that is on the back of the book is NOTHING about what this story is about. I'm not spoiling anything by saying this but that synopsis pretty much ties itself up in the first quarter of the book. I'm not kidding. It's over and is never brought up again for the rest of the book. This I felt to be very misleading as I thought that was going to be main conflict of the book and it was over before it barely began! The storyline is also very predictable and I could see things happening long before they actually came true. The characters are rather cookie cutter and not a lot happens with them to make them grow and change.

I also felt this book to be extremely preachy. Now with Christian fiction I can expect there to be some talk about God and being saved to a point in the book. This book however, pretty much was just filled with it. I'm sorry but I would not want to give this book to someone who wasn't a Christian because I think they would either get confused by all the lingo or annoyed at being preached at constantly. It's one thing to see how having strong faith influences a character but it's quite a different matter for it to get thrown in your face on every page. Also there is a character that is a recovering alcoholic and gets over his alcoholism simply by praying. While this can be part of the recovery process, it is very unrealistic for it to be the only way, and also especially after just one time of going cold turkey.

Now there were things I did find interesting about the story. SIDS is brought up and even though they didn't know much about it during the time period, it is still interesting at how it is handled. Also I found it quite interesting that the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake is mentioned and talked about even though most of the story takes place in Alaska. I liked the historical aspect of that as it made the book more historical at that point instead of being just a historical romance.

However, it's not enough to save the book, and sadly I cannot recommend it. The first book in the series I did enjoy. I will have to go back and read the second book to catch up on what I missed. I'm hoping that future books by Peterson will find more favor with me.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-17
Summary: "best of the series"

Twilight's Serenade is the final book of the Song of Alaska series by Tracie Peterson. It was my favorite of the three books in this series.

Britta Lindquist left Alaska 6 years ago to try to forget about the love of her life, Yuri. When she returns, she finds Yuri missing and his wife about to give birth to another child. However, tragedy strikes and Britta finds herself the caretaker of Yuri's children (Laura and Darya). Meanwhile, Yuri turns his life around and returns home to find things have changed. Britta must come face-to-face with him and a hard decision she must make. Brenton Maltese, her violin teacher has offered her the coveted position of first-chair violinist for his new orchestra in England. Between Yuri's return and the orchestra, Britta must make a decision on what she wants most in her life...

This book was my favorite out of the three. Yuri's change of heart seemed rather quick however since it happened near the beginning of the book. That is understandable though since it was needed to drive the plot. I liked the addition of Marston Gray near the end of the story. It sort of tied all 3 books together since it seemed the Gray family were the "villians" of this series. Again, descriptions of scenery and life in Alaska were detailed. I really enjoyed this series...I wish it could continue on and dwelve into the lives of Laura and the other grandchildren of Lydia. Looking forward to Tracie Peterson's next series though.