5 stars for The Girls in Cabin Number Three by @chrysteen_braun #womensfiction #cozynoir #bookreview
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  • N. N. Light
    • Feb 2, 2023
    • 4 min read

5 stars for The Girls in Cabin Number Three by @chrysteen_braun #womensfiction #cozynoir #bookreview



Title: The Girls in Cabin Number Three

Author: Chrysteen Braun

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Cozy Noir Mystery


Book Blurb:


"With themes of love, family, friendship, new beginnings, and the complexity of life, readers will get hooked from the very beginning." —San Francisco Book Review


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


“Braun’s a top-notch storyteller; 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


“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… with plenty of intrigue in an idyllic mountain locale.”

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


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.


My Review:


Wow, the first few pages hooked me, not letting go until the last page. This book is a dual-timeline story with interesting characters, a mystery to unravel, and a beautiful lake setting. You’ll want to curl up with this book.


The story opens and we meet two women, both telling their side of the story in their prospective time periods. I really like the way it was written. I dove into the story, connecting with the two women with ease.


The descriptive narration is filled with tons of detail and emotion. Through the narration, I got to experience life in a small town by a lake. I hear Lake Arrowhead was famous back in the day. Reading this book brought that feeling of community to life.


The characters are what drove this plot. I connected with Annie the most. Her determination and moxie pulled her through some sticky situations. The other characters fascinated me and held my attention.


The mystery behind cabin number three is something right out of a gangster movie. It made reading this book so exciting! I couldn’t read fast enough.


While this book isn’t going to change your life, it is one that will make you think about the past. Some family skeletons are best left buried. The Girls in Cabin Number Three is a wonderfully written book. I’ve recommended it to all my family and friends…and now you.


My Rating: 5 stars


Buy it Now:










Author Biography:


Chrysteen Braun is a California native, born and raised in Long Beach.


The Lake Arrowhead mountains, where she and her husband had a second home, were the inspiration for her first three books, The Guestbook Trilogy. These fictional restored cabins from the late 1920s all had their own stories to tell. Through their children, readers get their first glimpse of who stayed in the cabins, but not why.


Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty's The Husband's Secret and Linda Holmes's Evvie Drake Starts Over.


"A touching novel charting two women’s parallel lives, tied together by mysteries, transformation, and a cabin." —Booklife


"Braun delivers a moving portrayal of a young woman searching for herself amid personal upheaval." —Booklife


"Masterfully written, intriguing, mystifying, and spooky are how I would classify The Man in Cabin Number Five by Chrysteen Braun. As a great background, Braun uses the mountainous area and cabins to her advantage in telling the stories of Annie and Alyce. This is an exceptional plot, never leading the reader too far from the original storyline. Her character development is outstanding. I was able to feel everything Annie felt." Teresa Syms for Readers' Favorite Book Reviews and Awards.


"In The Man in Cabin Number Five, Chrysteen Braun narrates a deeply compelling, inspiring, and adorable narrative about the mountainside cabins of Lake Arrowhead, shocking secrets, and two women that are linked to the cabins in different ways—one by a buried past and the other by optimistic plans for the future.


"Chrysteen Braun does a mind-blowing job of building the characters and making them lifelike and easy to relate to. The first-person narrative is done to perfection as it reads like the narrators are speaking to friends—natural, lively, and jovial. I laughed out loud when I read the part where Anne claims that a bag of chips and a soda are "just what the doctor ordered.


"The Man in Cabin Number Five inspires anyone recovering from betrayal and infidelity to keep living and working towards a better future. The picturesque descriptions of the scenes and characters will appeal to readers who wish to get completely immersed in and escape into a fictional world. Chrysteen Braun creates a masterpiece with smooth storytelling that juxtaposes the serenity of the mountains with the eruptive chaos of dangerous secrets and ends with a bang. What a terrific story! What a talented writer!" Foluso Falaye, for the San Francisco Book Review.


Her writing crosses genres with Women's Fiction with relationships, and a little mystery and intrigue. She's published articles about her field of interior design and remodeling, both for trade publications and her local newspaper and has just received a Book Excellence Award for The Man in Cabin Number Five.


Braun lives in Coto de Caza, California (southern Orange County) with her husband Larry and two Siamese cats.


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Reviewed by: Sam

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