Took back. Not enough time. Will try again. ( )

One winter night Jenny Majesky loses everything in a house fire. Slowly she tries to recover the pieces of her life which draws her closer to Rourke McKnight, the man she has been avoiding for years. Book 2 in The Lakeshore Chronicles, this book fleshes out some of the side stories started in book 1, Summer at Willow Lake. ( )

When a devastating house fire reveals a rare treasure among her grandfather's belongings, leading her on a search for the truth, Jenny Majesky returns to the only place she feels safe, The Winter Lodge, where she finds an ally in the local police chief, Rourke McKnight. I love almost anything by Susan Wiggs. She has a way of making you care about her characters and Jenny and Rourke are no exception. ( )

I've read a few of Wiggs' Avalon-based books and this one was pretty good. It featured Rourke McKnight, rich boy turned Chief of Police who has always loved but denied himself Jenny Majesky, because his best friend Joey Santini was in love with her. The book is filled with small town charm and likable characters but there's so many flashbacks to describe why Jenny and Rourke act the way they do togther, that it totally distracts from the story. In fact, it's hard to FIND the main story! There are plots (Daisy's pregnancy), subplots (who's stealing from the City Funds?) flashbacks galore and even indications of future romance (Nina and Greg). By the time Rourke and Jenny find themselves caught at the Winter Lodge in a blizzard, it's page 386! I almost didn't care about them as a couple anymore. THEN to top it off, there's some uncharacteristic action and violence at the very end that didn't fit with the rest. Anyway, it's still pretty decent reading but I liked Table of Five by Wiggs much better. ( )