Summer at Willow Lake

Enjoyed the descriptions of being at a summer camp for wealthy kids mostly. Never did truly understand why Connor ever wanted to date Lolly during his final year at camp - understood the friendship but not the love. Truly admired Connor for his ability to pull himself up as an adult while dealing with family issues (drunk father, non-caring mother). Also wonder how future books will deal with his half brother, Julian which was an entertaining character. Liked the comparisons of father's behavior to daughter's for dealing with someone of a lower class. Mother exhibited the typical snob attitudes.

Not really into contemporary romances anymore, but since I really loved Wiggs' historical work, I thought I would give this series a try. I -almost- did not like the heroine, and I'm still troubled by the "weight loss made me beautiful" trope. BUT I really loved the chemistry, the hero, and the interwoven story lines. Clearly, the rest of the series is going to be interesting. Looking forward to catching up.

I pretty much went backwards here, because I read the Lakeshore Chronicles #8 (Marrying Daisy Bellamy) before I read #1, but I'm not terribly sorry that I did. I enjoyed both books, and by reading the newest one first I got rid of all that pesky "will they or won't they?" bit. (Not that there really is any, but still. You never know.)

Summer at Willow Lake introduces us to the Bellamys and to Camp Kioga, a family and a location that feature prominently in the rest of the series. This novel focuses on Olivia Bellamy, the only child of a wealthy but unhappy-until-they-get-divorced couple. Olivia spent summers at her grandparents' summer camp, Camp Kioga, of which she has mostly uncomfortable memories. Lolly, as she was called back then, show more compensated for her tense home situation by overeating, and this made her awkward and out of place at camp. She slims down in college, gains much needed self-esteem, and as a adult owns her own business in New York; her love life, though, leaves much to be desired. As the novel begins, Olivia is just about to be almost engaged for the third time...but gets dumped instead. Her grandmother asks her to oversee the renovations of Camp Kioga, which has been closed now for many years so that her grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary party can be held there. Olivia agrees, not realizing that by doing so she will come into direct--and near constant--contact with Connor Davis, local contractor and the boy who broke her heart so many summers ago.

A touching start to the series, Wiggs gives readers a nice introduction to the characters and locations that will feature prominantly in the next seven books. I'm off to check my library for #2! show less

Summer at Willow Lake is a promising start to a series, but an awkward start all the same. The author seemed to have her hands full with the plot, multiple sub plots, and introducing the characters for the series and the flow and character connection suffered for it. The story line itself was good and I loved the secluded New York camp setting. This is one of those books that I have had in my eReader for a long time and am glad to have read it. I am hoping that now that the introductions have been made, the series will improve from here.

Summer at Willow Lake is a fun romance novel that touches some serious themes. The story is set at Camp Kioga in the Catskills. The camp has been owned and operated by the Bellamy family for multiple generations, but it has been shut down for the past nine years. When the novel begins, Olivia Bellamy, a twenty-seven-year-old business woman who owns a company that prepares (or fluffs) homes to be put on the market, is approached by her grandmother, Jane Bellamy. Jane's plan is to hire Olivia to renovate the camp so that she and her husband, Charles, can hold their golden anniversary party there.

Olivia is good at her work, so her business is very successful. However, she's not very good at her relationships with men. Something always goes show more wrong. Shortly before Olivia's Nana approaches her, Olivia suffers her latest breakup. Although renovating a camp that's been shuttered for so long is a project that will be challenging, an opportunity to get out of the city for the summer is just what she needs. She agrees to handle the project.

One of the first things Olivia needs to do when she arrives at the camp is to hire a contractor. Of course, there's only one contractor in the small town and he turns out to be the person who broke her heart one summer when they were both counselors at the camp.

The plot of Summer at Willow Lake is centered around Olivia's relationship through what is happening in the present as well as flashbacks to her time as a teenager. Yet the story also branches off to touch other romances, including events that happened to Olivia's father back when he was at the camp. I liked way these other stories were woven into the main narrative.

Although the book has some very humorous sections, it also deals with some serious topics such as alcohol addiction and the effects of divorce on children. show less

Summer at Willow Lake is a promising start to a series, but an awkward start all the same. The author seemed to have her hands full with the plot, multiple sub plots, and introducing the characters for the series and the flow and character connection suffered for it. The story line itself was good and I loved the secluded New York camp setting. This is one of those books that I have had in my eReader for a long time and am glad to have read it. I am hoping that now that the introductions have been made, the series will improve from here.

Started out verrrryyy slow for me, but picked up after about five chapters. Felt a little more chick lit than romance (although, yes, that is a fine line) for most of the book. The pairing itself was good -- I did like Olivia a lot, and I loved Connor. The thing that I didn't like was that, [POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT] throughout the whole book we keep hearing about how Connor was the behind the most humiliating experience of Olivia's life -- and experience that has haunted her since it happened -- and then, after about 500 pages, it was resolved in two, and even those were partially indirect due to a conversation Olivia had with someone else. I wanted the resolution to cause sparks and tension between Olivia and Connor, not anyone else. show more And I wanted the making up that came with that.

[DEFINITE SPOILER ALERT]

I was glad that at the end I got my romance HEA, but I wanted a little bit more togetherness there as well. Especially because the build-up was so much more thorough than in more conventionally sized romance books. Overall, however, I did enjoy the book and am looking forward to the next in the series. show less