Return to picturesque 1980s Lake Arrowhead, California where another cozy cabin sheltered amongst the sweeping pine-lined vistas holds a long-buried secret, waiting to be divulged.
In this third installment of The Guest Book Trilogy, a young Annie Parker is struggling to overcome her grief over the recent loss of her sister, when a childhood friend unexpectedly turns up seeking refuge from an ill-fated marriage. It would have been easy for Annie to sink deeper into sadness, but when she learns her newest design client, Hudson Fisher, is the son of the late film actress Celeste Williams, her curiosity is peaked. As it turns out, the Roaring 20s starlet was no stranger to the Lake Arrowhead cabins—and this revelation sparks the unraveling of a scandalous story from Hollywood’s bygone era. Did an illicit romance between this leading lady and her dashing costar take place in Cabin No. 7? What really went on behind-the-scenes during the filming of that silent picture? Will discovering a piece of the past bring closure to Annie’s present?
A heartwarming tale of friendships, forgiveness, and a touch of old Hollywood glamour, The Starlet in Cabin Number Seven will have readers captivated from beginning to end.
Annie discovers the fascinating history behind the cabins, a key component of the series, when Hudson Fisher and his wife Constance visit Annie’s recently acquired flooring store, and Hudson reveals that his mother, Celeste Williams, a now-deceased movie star, once stayed in the nearby cabins. Braun alternates between these characters’ richly drawn perspectives, revealing, in fast-paced and surprising passages, how Annie reinvented herself following her divorce and how Sarah survived a traumatic childhood amid her mother’s episodic religious fervor and volatile relationship with Sarah’s alcoholic father.
Braun also journeys back in time to Depression-era Chicago, which Celeste leaves to go to Los Angeles, later meeting and marrying Joseph Keller, a film producer with whom she has Hudson, and later divorces when he is arrested as an alleged pro-Nazi sympathizer. The glamor of Celeste’s life as a popular Hollywood actress is imbued with realism through Braun’s inclusion of real-life actors and directors, including the famed Cecil B. DeMille. As the 1920s and 1980s collide, Noah makes a startling discovery while remodeling one of the cabins, leading Annie eager to learn more—and readers turning the pages.
Takeaway: Richly-drawn story of the secrets harbored in rustic California cabins.
Comparable Titles: Elizabeth Bromke’s House on the Harbor, Kimberly Thomas’s The Willberry Inn.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
