The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich

There are some stories that when you read them you simply can't put them down. Then there are others that you read over several days. While still others are simply just okay or complete stinkers.The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich is just okay. At one point, I was almost disappointed, but perhaps I was just reading it at the wrong time. I didn't find anything that was really outstanding about it, save for the fact that it was about a mystical woman who makes a lot of quilts and waits for the owners to show up so she can give it to them.

Some of the things that happen to the main character, Carly McKay, could be considered real life, but there was really nothing that I would call tragic. Okay, so her runaway mom returns, and she loses her job, goes back to Bisby, AZ (the site of where she meets the mysterious quiltmaker) to find herself, and then somehow miraculously gets herself another job. All because of a quilt! Hardly. While I am a firm believer in destiny, I also believe in making things happen for yourself. I can't really feel sorry for Carly. At some point all I remembered thinking was "suck it up and get on with it."Frankly, I wish that Ms. Rich would have spent a little more time developing some of the ancillary characters. It would have helped provide a bit more color to the story.