Empty Nest is book 44 in the Tales From Grace Chapel Inn series about three sisters who run a bed-and-breakfast from their maternal ancestors' Victorian house in the village of Acorn Hill, Pennsylvania. Their late father, Daniel Howard, had been the pastor of nearby Grace Chapel, hence the name.

Widowed Mrs. Louise Howard Smith teaches piano as well as keeping the inn's books. Alice Howard is a part-time nurse. Divorced Jane Howard was a professional chef in San Francisco. She does the cooking and gardening. They share in housekeeping tasks.

These books have a formula: there will be a main problem and one or more problems for subplots. Guests and/or townspeople will be involved. Faith will play a part in resolving the problems.

The main problem of this entry is Joanna Gordon, who works with Louise's daughter, Cynthia Smith. They are both children's book editors, but Joanna's mind is more on writing poetry than work. Joanna doesn't realize how her tendency to go off and think about poetry is very inconsiderate. Cynthia and her aunts are worried about her, but no one is being sensible and letting Joanna know she's in danger of being fired. They aren't even telling her how inconsiderate she is. I don't think they did her any favors by keeping silent.

Joanna is allergic to garlic, so that's a challenge for Jane.

Jane has installed a new bird feeder. How nice for the birder couple, Margo and Ross Wallace, who are staying at the inn. The empty nest of the title refers to the fact that their only child, Penny, is going off to college. Margo is more open about how much she will miss their daughter than Ross is. See chapter 12 for something Aunt Ethel says that makes a difference.

Louise isn't going to have as much time with Cynthia as she'd thought because she's on jury duty. The scenes involving her experiences are interesting, particularly the motives of one juror.

Alice and her ANGELs (a Bible study, projects, and community outreach program for middle school girls), are going to help out at the library. Joanna wants to help, but that doesn't work out as Joanna expected.

NOTES:

Chapter 2: Previously named members of Viola Reed's 14-cat household that I know about are a 17-pound black-and-white tomcat named Gatsby, ivory Siamese Anna, Tess the calico, and a tiny black-and-white named Kane. I suspect there's a reference to the action in a previous book I haven't read here. Anyway, Viola's oldest cat is a gray male with a crooked leg named Ahab. She also has an orange marmalade named Harry. (Gatsby is the one who will be glad to see Wendell again.)

Chapter 4 mentions one of the things jurors must not do.

In chapter 8, Ross and Margo talk about what a great place Pennsylvania is for bird watchers.

Chapter 11 has a clarification about the reason for not touching bird nests and why it's okay to throw rice at weddings without worrying about birds eating it..

Joanna, who writes children's stories of her own, gives the children at the library information about paper dolls.

Chapter 15: How nice to know that the late Rev. Howard once gave a sermon praising Martha. (I never heard the story about Martha and Mary without wishing that either Martha had given up making dinner to join Mary in listening to Jesus, or Jesus and Mary had joined her in the kitchen, sharing the tasks.)

See chapter 16 for information about quilts and corsets.

That's the refrain from 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow', lyrics by Civilla Durfee Martin, music by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel, that Louise and Cynthia are singling in the last chapter.

Joanna is a nice and creative person, but she would have driven me crazy. I did like the library program for the littler children and the information about jury duty should be helpful to readers.

The recipe this time is Jane's Orange Blossom Baklava.

Cat lovers: I'm sorry, but Wendell spends most of the book staying with Viola Reed and her 14 cats because Joanna is allergic. ( )