The Man in Cabin Number Five by Chrysteen Braun is a Binge-Worthy Festival pick #womensfiction
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    • Aug 2, 2023
    • 4 min read

The Man in Cabin Number Five by Chrysteen Braun is a Binge-Worthy Festival pick #womensfiction



Title: The Man in Cabin Number Five, Guest Book Trilogy Book One


Author: Chrysteen Braun


Genre: Women’s Fiction


Book Blurb:


When Annie Parker discovers her husband’s infidelity, she doesn’t let it destroy her. She packs her bags and heads to Lake Arrowhead, Ca, the mountainside town where her family used to summer. Immersing herself in the restoration of seven 1920s era cabins, Annie begins to put the pieces of her life back together. But starting over is never easy.


Alyce Murphy needs closure. When she discovers her father did not die from a heart attack, as she’s been led to believe for the last 30 years, but in a murder/suicide, she is determined to uncover the truth of his death. But when she visits the cabin where her father ended his life, Alyce has to accept she may never know the true story.


Annie is looking towards her future while Alyce needs to put the past to rest. In parallel stories, both women are drawn to the rustic mountainside cabins as they search for the missing pieces---but they soon discover that the cabins have their own stores to tell.


Excerpt:


I was sixteen when we finally sold the Pinecone Lake House. Loni had gone away to college, and that left only my mother, me, and my friends making the trip. She made our meals, cleaned up and did laundry. She never complained, but I saw that I was being selfish. Without my father being able to join us, I understood she didn’t have the companionship that had been part of the magic of the lake and the property.


On a weekend Loni came home from school, we made our last trip up so we could go through the house and decide what we wanted to keep once we sold it. My parents had listed the house, and there were realtor brochures on the kitchen counter showing photos of all the rooms. When I looked at them, I almost felt like I was looking at someone else’s house. I realized then, I was going to be leaving an entire world behind me.


On our last night at the cabin, even though I was exhausted from packing, I had a hard time falling asleep. Obviously, I knew it was going to be the last time I’d stay in the bed I called mine. And I remembered how difficult it was for me to sleep the first few nights we’d stayed in the lake house in the beginning. I was grateful Loni slept in one of the other rooms, for I wanted to be by myself.


I waited until the last moment to carefully pack my mountain treasures; the feathers, bird shells, some pinecones, and the arrowheads I’d found. Since we wouldn’t be returning to the mountains, we packed boxes of warm jackets, heavy socks, mittens, and boots, which we donated to the local thrift store. And as we drove away, I thought of movies I’d seen where the main character turns and looks through the rear window, waving. And that was me, tears in my eyes and everything.


“You’re such a baby,” Loni said.


“Shut up,” I whispered.


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What’s the first binge-worthy book you read and why was it a must-read?


My most recent binge worthy books were written by Donna Everhart. She writes Women's Fiction, and her characters are so real and down to earth. I didn't want the books to end! I was hooked.


The Road to Bittersweet

The Saints of Swallow Hill

The Education of Dixie Dupree

and The Forgiving Kind


What makes your featured book a binge-worthy read?


The Man in Cabin Number Five is the first book of my Trilogy. It begins with Annie Parker coming up to the mountains and buying the cabins. She meets a new love and makes some mistakes, and in the end, she learns that cabin five has a story to tell. Book two, The Girls in Cabin Number Three continues with her story and we meet the woman who's mother has stayed in in the cabins and knew Bugsy Siegel. The stories continue with book three which is due out later this month.


Giveaway –


One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon gift card



Open internationally.


Runs August 1 – 31, 2023.


Drawing will be held on September 1, 2023.


Author Biography:


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

The mountains, where she and her husband had a second home, were the inspiration for her first three books, The Guest House Trilogy. These fictional restored cabins from the late 1920s all had their own stories to tell.


Her writing crosses genres of 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.


She lives in Coto de Caza, with her husband Larry and two Siamese cats.



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