Sheila Roberts - The Cottage on Juniper Ridge

How to Change Your Life…

Can a book change your life? Yes, when it’s Simplicity, Muriel Sterling’s guide to plain living. In fact, it inspires Jen Heath to leave her stressful, overcommitted life in Seattle and move to Icicle Falls, where she rents a lovely little cottage on Juniper Ridge. And where she can enjoy simple pleasures—like joining the local book club—and complicated ones, like falling in love with her sexy landlord, Garrett Armstrong.

Her sister Toni is ready for a change, too. She has a teenage daughter who’s constantly texting her friends, a husband who’s more involved with his computer than he is with her, and a son who’s consumed by video games. Toni wants her family to grow closer—to return to a simpler way of life.

Other women in town, like Stacy Thomas, are also inspired to unload their excess stuff and some of the extra responsibilities they’ve taken on.

But as they all discover, sometimes life simply happens. It doesn’t always happen simply!

SHEILA ROBERTS

‘Her characters are warm and engaging and their interactions are full of humour.’

—RT Book Reviews

‘An uplifting, charming, feel-good story’

—Booklist

‘… will doubtless warm more than a few hearts.’

—Publishers Weekly

‘A wonderful story with characters so real and defined I feel like I am personally acquainted with them … There is humour and emotion in large quantities in this fantastic book that is next to impossible to put down. Kudos and a large bouquet of flowers to Sheila Roberts for giving us one of the best books of the year.’

—Fresh Fiction

“Within minutes of cracking open the book, my mood was lifted.”

—First for Women

SHEILA ROBERTSis married and has three children. She lives on a lake in the Pacific Northwest. When she's not hanging out with her girlfriends or hitting the dance floor with her husband, she can be found writing about those things dear to women's hearts: family, friends and chocolate.

You can visit Sheila at her website, www.sheilasplace.com. You can also find her on Twitter @_Sheila_Roberts and Facebook.

Also by Sheila Roberts

BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE

MERRY EX-MAS

WHAT SHE WANTS

www.mirabooks.co.uk

For my buddy Liz

Dear Reader,

I think this book has been bubbling at the back of my mind for some time. A few years ago my husband and I moved from the house we'd been in for eighteen years and I was shocked to see how much stuff we'd accumulated! After so many runs to Goodwill that I lost count and packing enough boxes to fill a stadium, I was so done with stuff. I could drive by a garage sale and not even be tempted! Of course, that didn't last long. Pretty soon I was, once more, braking for garage sales. Then we lost my husband's parents and were up to our eyeballs in stuff again. What to do with it all? Where to put it? Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. And keeping the pile of things to a reasonable level is still an ongoing process, but I think I'm getting it down to a system.

And that wasn't the only thing I was dealing with. I was trying to simplify my life. Between trying to keep up with work, family responsibilities, house, garden, church and friends, I was on overload. When we first moved to our little lake house, I'd envisioned myself puttering in the garden, growing my own fruit and veggies, sitting on the patio and enjoying the view, sipping cocktails with the neighbours. Ha! Who had time for that? I needed to simplify my life!

I suspect I'm not the only one who's been faced with this. I've talked to a lot of women stuck in that same cramped boat. It's easy to get overcommitted and overloaded. It sort of sneaks up on us one bargain at a time, one ‘Sure, I can do that’ commitment at a time. Next thing we know, life is complicated.

The women in Icicle Falls have realised this and they're going to do something about it. But they've got some challenges ahead. I hope you'll enjoy their journey. And if it resonates with you, well, I always love hearing from my readers. Find me on Facebook or visit me at my website, www.sheilasplace.com.

Happy reading!

Sheila

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Dear Reader

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Acknowledgments

Endpages

Copyright

Chapter One

Sometimes we get so used to the status quo that we forget we can change it.

—Muriel Sterling, author of Simplicity

Jen Heath hurried along the downtown Seattle sidewalk, hunched against a freezing rain, her holiday to-do list dogging her every step, breathing down her neck. The trees that lined the street twinkled with white lights, and store windows boasted displays of Santas, presents and happy elves. A steel drum band had set up in the Westlake Mall and was playing “Jingle Bells.” Bah, humbug, she thought grumpily as she strode past them.

Anyone peering inside her head would think she hated the holidays. She didn’t. She loved them. What she didn’t love was being so darned busy.

How had she gotten stuck in charge of planning the office Christmas party? Oh, yeah, Patty Unger, her supervisor, had volunteered her. Thanks, Patty. Not that Jen minded planning a party. But having to plan one this year wasn’t fun. It was just one more thing to add to a very long to-do list.

In addition to her full-time job as office slave at Emerald City Promotions, she sold Soft Glow Candles on the party plan—all so she could whittle down what she owed on her credit cards, keep up her car payments and make the mortgage on her First Hill condo, which she could barely afford. The car she’d needed, but the condo? What had she been thinking when she bought it? Oh, yeah. She hadn’t been thinking. She’d taken one look at the granite countertops, the hardwood floors and the view of the Seattle skyline, and condo lust had come over her like a fever. By the time the fever broke she was a homeowner. (Thanks to the bank and her parents.) And her credit cards were maxed out. (Because, of course, she had to furnish the new condo.) Now she was a stressed homeowner.

Who was never home. She had three candle parties booked this week and two more on the weekend. The following weekend she had another candle party on Saturday, and then on Sunday a cookie exchange at her sister’s, followed by the church choir concert. Oh, she’d be home later that evening, right along with the eighteen other people she’d invited to her place for the postconcert party. (This was the symptom of yet another fever—new-owner pride. She’d been dying to show off the condo, and hosting a party had seemed like the perfect way.) The day before, she’d gone to see the gingerbread house display at the Sheraton Hotel with her mother, her sister and her niece, Jordan. She’d been pooped, but when she tried to wiggle out of going, Toni had reminded her that this was a tradition, and anyway, she needed to spend time with her family. Guilt, the gift that kept on giving. After that, she’d visited her grandma, who was complaining that she’d almost forgotten what her granddaughter looked like. It seemed everyone in her family was giving guilt for Christmas this year.