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The Girls in Cabin Number Three

Book Two of the Guest Book Series

The Girls in Cabin Number Three

"An excellent novel with engaging, fleshed-out characters, The Girls in Cabin Number Three will be a great read for any fan of historical novels or women’s fiction.." —Readers' Favorite

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In Book Two, eighty-one-year-old Annie Parker continues to draw on her memories of the 1980s when she lived in idyllic Lake Arrowhead, Ca. Against Noah’s wishes, she accepts a design job with her wealthy client, Grayson Underwood, and flies to Montana. When she returns, Noah has gone. More determined than ever, Annie makes a decision she will forever regret.

Carrie Davis lives in the mountains until she moves down to go to college and get married. After her divorce, she moves back up to the family home on the lake to help care for her mother, Elizabeth. Upon her mother’s death, Carrie discovers Elizabeth’s ties to Cabin Number Three and a former speakeasy from the thirties and forties. A man who’s come into her life also has ties to the private club, but she finds they are much deeper ones.

Believing hard work is the answer to her problems, Annie attempts to push away the past and undertakes restoring Carrie’s family home, which is what she loves doing best. But then, the past comes back to haunt her.

Book Reviews

[The Girls in Cabin Number Three]'s complex, interesting characters, and engrossing historical and geographical settings make it a must-read." 

—Readers' Favorite

“Annie meets Carrie Davis, a new guest who slowly begins to unravel secrets from her own family’s past in the second part of The Guest Book Trilogy: The Girls in Cabin Number Three. This book takes up where The Man in Cabin Number Five left off, with plenty of intrigue in an idyllic mountain locale.”

-Susan Denley, former Associate Features Editor,  Los Angeles Times.

"Braun’s a top-notch story teller; Book Two, The Girls in Cabin Number Three, is well plotted with clearly defined and relatable characters. Her research is exemplary."

-Kate Osborn, formerly with the Mountain News, Lake Arrowhead 

“Chrysteen Braun’s, The Girls in Cabin Number Three is the masterful second instalment of The Guest Book Trilogy. A compelling work of women’s fiction, the story follows Annie, in her search for answers as she discovers secrets from her family’s past after meeting new guests at the cabin. The plot moves swiftly, containing memorable and symbolic details, which add authenticity and legitimacy to the story. Braun’s voice and tone have been well established, with language pitched at an accessible, vivid manner. Themes of friendship, family, and mystery tie the work together in a memorable way, creating an unforgettable story that readers won’t soon forget.”

-Maincrest Media

Book 2 book illustrations

Book Award

Maincrest Media award winner

Maincrest Media Award Seal

The Girls in Cabin Number Three

|  excerpt  |

CHAPTER ONE

It was 1981 and springtime in Lake Arrowhead, California, and there was still some snow on the ground in areas where the sun hadn’t melted it. Berms were now covered in dirt, and small grainy volcanic rock lined the roads up the mountain, looking dingy, needing a fresh layer of snow to be pretty again. Daffodils and tulips that had been planted over the years popped up along the roads into town. Every once in a while, it was obvious which ones had multiplied on their own, for they spread naturally in random clumps. Clusters of them emerged from the small gardens in front of each of the cabins too, and soon I’d finish filling in with spots of other annual color. I’d purchased the B & B, actually a series of seven cabins, the summer before, when I’d come to the mountains eager to clear my head. I hadn’t come with the plan of moving up, but I’d also not dreamed I’d find out that my husband David had been seeing someone else. I knew it would not solve all life’s problems, but the entire lifestyle here made me realize how easily I could start over. I didn’t have to run away; I could simply live where no one knew me. Once I made up my mind, it hadn’t taken me long to come up with the serendipitous idea to buy the cabins I stayed in and get a new perspective on life. We had a guest coming in the afternoon, and the only vacancy we had was Number Five, now called Cedar Cove Cabin.

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From Book Life Reviews

The second entry in Braun’s Guest Book Trilogy again blends romance with elements of mystery, suspense, and literary
women’s fiction, all in the restored 1920s cabins of Lake Arrowhead in California. Again, the plot revolves—at first—around Annie Park, a divorcee who now runs B&Bs and her own interior design studio. Annie falls for the affable Noah, but when she takes up an out-of-town design project for a rich client, things go astray, and Annie realizes she’s gotten herself into more than she bargained for. Meanwhile, Annie meets Carrie Davis and takes up the task of renovating her childhood home, a job and a relationship that will stir in her the spirit of the roaring twenties and reveal the secret history of Carrie’s family, replete with speakeasies and gangsters.

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.

This ambitious, romance-tinged novel highlights unexpected connections in women’s lives.

Those themes shine through again, and the historical angle offers fascinating detail, even-tually 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.

Great for fans of Julia Kelly’s The Light Over London, Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife.

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