Twelve Times Blessed
By Jacquelyn Mitchard

     Twelve Times Blessed is another addition to Ms. Mitchard's collection of stories that speak to the heart of relationships. The reader is introduced to True Dickinson who is the co-owner of Twelve Times Blessed, a dot.com company designed to send gifts to new mothers and their newborns for the first twelve months. On True's birthday, she realizes that things are missing in her life, in particular the loss of her husband who died several years earlier. Can she find new happiness, especially when an accident occurs on her birthday? Ms. Mitchard continues to develop deep relationships between her main characters, however, in Twelve Times Blessed, the character development is not as well done as in her previous books. Readers still get the feel for what Ms. Mitchard attempts to write about, the intense impact that true relationships have on people in novels and in real life. The small town setting that Ms. Mitchard uses in Twelve Times Blessed adds to the development of the relationship and how important people in small towns rely on each other in good times and in bad times. True fans of Ms. Mitchard's will appreciate Twelve Times Blessed.