Loved it! Among other things...heartfelt and realistic portrayal of families that are breaking up. Lovely encompassing of two generations, and secondary stories were satisfying.

Summer at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs:

My thoughts and comments:

This is a very light, breezy, summer read. It is definitely chick lit. (what I consider to be a book directed at women)
The storyline is that a couple getting ready to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary want to do it at the same place they were married. They want to renew their vows at their vast property that used to be an active summer camp for families and then for youth but has since fallen to rack and ruin. They contact their grandaughter, Olivia, to ask her if she will take charge of the renovations. She has the whole summer to do it, her uncle and his 2 kids will help, she can hire a contractor and her assistant and she has a couple of cousins who are also going to help.
Olivia, having just broken up with her 3rd fiancee agrees, not knowing that the only contractor within miles is the same boy, now grown up, that she fell in love with when she was at camp herself in her youth.
This is a great summer read and I enjoyed it immensely and intend to read the other 3 or 4 in the series The Lakeshore Chronicles
I highly recommend it for light summer reading and if you ladies need a break from heavier reads. ( )

The first book in the Lakeshore Chronicles series. I was captivated from the very beginning. I did not want to put this book down. It only took me 24 hours to finish the book (and I did go to work and do lots of other things in those 24 hours!). Olivia agrees to renovate her grandparents lakeshore camp after her 3rd failed engagement (and this latest one didn't even get started). She has to face all of the bad memories of her times spent at the camp and move on from her unhappy childhood.Conner has moved on from his troubled past and is making a life for himself. He just hasn't found anyone he wants to settle down with. Then Olivia comes back into town and hires him to be her contractor to renovate the camp.This story is more than just Olivia and Conner...it revolves around them, but includes both of their families. All the characters are interesting and kept me captivated. The story jumps back and forth in time, but each flashback played right into the current part of the story.This was my first book by Susan Wiggs and I am sure to read more...including the rest of this series. ( )

lost interest although premise could have been good ( )

When her grandparents request one last summer with the whole family in the Catskills, Olivia hires contractor Connor Davis to fix up the camp, but gets more than she bargained for when the renovations unearth shocking secrets and searing passion. Wiggs sets her romance in a picture-perfect setting in the Catskill Mountains. Wiggs has a way of making you care about her characters. I look forward to meeting more of the Bellamy family. ( )