In book two of the Guest Book Trilogy, eighty-one-year-old Annie Parker recounts taking on, against the wishes of her new love Noah, an out-of-town design project that leads her down a path that is more than she bargained for.
Back in Lake Arrowhead, California, a long-awaited mystery is buried in Cabin Number Three. Annie meets Carrie Davis who wants to update her childhood home on the lake and feels a tie to Annie’s cabins.
Apparently, Carrie’s parents stayed here during the Roaring ‘20s when Bugsy Siegel ran an underground speakeasy and distillery. Unconvinced, Annie decides to investigate and finds their names in the old guest books—Elizabeth Davis and Thomas Meyer.
As exciting as that sounds, it’s only the start of a winding tale that Carrie and the new man in her life uncover. The pair unravel a family history filled with gangsters, working girls, and a surprising twist to a family tree.
The Girls in Cabin Number Three combines women’s fiction with romance, cozy noir mystery, and suspense—all wrapped up in the majestic environs of this lovely lakeside haven.
As in the first novel, Braun’s focus is dual, as The Girls In Cabin Number Three at first emphasizes Annie, in this case her budding relationship. Things take a turn with the arrival of Carrie, a guest whose “friend” Paul, the son of the late mobster Bugsy Siegel, recommended the cabin. From there, the novel splits perspectives, with Annie digging into the bootleggers-and-tommy-gun past and Carrie narrating chapters of her own. This device, twining two seemingly disparate stories, might jar readers new to the series, especially as Annie’s own story is engaging enough to stand alone. Braun’s trilogy centers such structural risks, asking readers to invest in the people Annie encounters—and to recognize the shared themes of renovation, rebuilding, and self-discovery.
Those themes shine through again, and the historical angle offers fascinating detail, eventually even taking over the narrative for a time. The bold choices continue with a late-in-the-game flashback from a new perspective. Lovers of romance and tales of women’s lives with quirky historical asides will enjoy this book, which rewards a willingness to shift one’s attention and seek out unexpected connections.
Takeaway: This ambitious, romance-tinged novel highlights unexpected connections in women’s lives.
Great for fans of: Julia Kelly’s The Light Over London, Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A-
