âSusan Wiggs paints the details of human relationships with the finesse of a master.â
âJodi Picoult
âWith the ease of a master, Wiggs introduces complicated, flesh-and-blood characters into her idyllic but identifiable small-town setting, sets in motion a refreshingly honest romance, resolves old issues and even finds room for a little mystery.â
âPublishers Weekly on The Winter Lodge (starred review, a Best Book of 2007)
â[A]n emotionally gripping tale centered on family. Wiggs is in top form.â
âBooklist on The Summer Hideaway
âSusan Wiggs writes with bright assurance, humor and compassion.â
âLuanne Rice
âA lovely, moving novel with an engaging heroine. Wiggsâ talent is reflected in her thoroughly believable characters as well as the way she recognizes the importance of family by blood or other ties. Readers who like Nora Roberts and Susan Elizabeth Phillips will enjoy Wiggsâ latest.
âLibrary Journal on Just Breathe (starred review)
âWiggsâ storytelling is heartwarming.â
âPublishers Weekly
âSusan Wiggs is a rare talent! Boisterous, passionate, exciting! The characters leap off the page and into your heart!â
âLiterary Times
âA poignant, beautiful romance.â
âKristin Hannah on The Lightkeeper
Contemporary Romances
HOME BEFORE DARK
THE OCEAN BETWEEN US
SUMMER BY THE SEA
TABLE FOR FIVE
LAKESIDE COTTAGE
JUST BREATHE
The Lakeshore Chronicles
SUMMER AT WILLOW LAKE
THE WINTER LODGE
DOCKSIDE
SNOWFALL AT WILLOW LAKE
FIRESIDE
LAKESHORE CHRISTMAS
THE SUMMER HIDEAWAY
Historical Romances
THE LIGHTKEEPER
THE DRIFTER
The Tudor Rose Trilogy
AT THE KINGâS COMMAND
THE MAIDENâS HAND
AT THE QUEENâS SUMMONS
Chicago Fire Trilogy
THE HOSTAGE
THE MISTRESS
THE FIREBRAND
Calhoun Chronicles
THE CHARM SCHOOL
THE HORSEMASTERâS DAUGHTER
HALFWAY TO HEAVEN
ENCHANTED AFTERNOON
A SUMMER AFFAIR
To the many librarians I knowâincluding John, Kristin, Nancy, Charlotte, Wendy, Cindy, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Suzanne, Melanie, Shelley, Stephani, Deborah, Cathieâand to the many more Iâve never metâ¦You have no idea how much you enrich peopleâs lives. Or maybe you do. I hope you do.
Thank you.
I get by with a little help from my friendsâAnjali Banerjee, Carol Cassella, Sheila Roberts, Suzanne Selfors, Elsa Watson, Kate Breslin, Mary Buckham, Lois Faye Dyer, Rose Marie Harris, Patty Jough-Haan, Susan Plunkett and Krysteen Seelenâwonderful writers and eagle-eyed readers.
Thanks to Sherrie Holmes for keeping all my ducks in a row.
Thanks to Margaret OâNeill-Marbury and Adam Wilson of MIRA Books, Meg Ruley and Annelise Robey of the Jane Rotrosen Agency, for invaluable advice and input. Thanks to my publisher and readers for supporting the Lakeshore Chronicles and for inspiring me to return to Avalon again and again.
A very special thank-you and all my love to my daughter Elizabeth, for her help with the recipes and for her marketing expertise. Thanks also to my sister, Lori, for proofreading, and to my mother, Lou, for mothering me no matter how old I get.
My familyâthe reason for everythingâis bigger and more blessed than ever this year. Welcome to the family, Dave.
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
âHamilton Wright Mabie (1846â1916), American essayist
The boy came to the edge of town at twilight, at the close of a winter day. Although the snows had not yet begun, the air was brutally cold, having leached the life from the fields and forests, turning everything to shades of brown and buff.
The road narrowed to one lane and passed through a covered bridge on ancient river stone pilings. Through the years, the structure had weathered and been replaced, plank by plank, yet it never really changed. The tumbled rocks and sere vegetation along the riverbanks were rimed by a delicate breath of frost, and the trees in the surrounding orchards and woods had long since dropped their leaves. There was an air of frozen waiting, as though all was in readiness, as though the stage was set.
He felt a quiet sense of purpose, knowing his task here wouldnât be easy. Hearts would have to break and be mended, truths would be revealed, risks would be taken. Which, when he thought about it, was simply the way life workedâmessy, unpredictable, joyous, mysterious, hurtful and redemptive.
A green-and-white sign in the shape of a shield identified the townâAvalon. Ulster County. Elevation 4347 feet.
Farther on, a billboard carried greetings from the Rotary, the Kiwanis and at least a dozen church and civic groups. The message of welcome read Avalon, in the Heart of the Catskills Forest Preserve. There was another sign exhorting travelers to visit Willow Lake, The Jewel Of The Mountains. The bit of hyperbole might apply to any number of small lakeside towns of upper New York state, but this one had the earnestness and charm of a place with a long and complicated history.
He was one of those complications. His understanding of what brought him here only extended so far, a narrow glimpse into the mystical realm of the human heart. Perhaps he wasnât meant to know why the past and present were about to collide at this moment in time. Perhaps it was enough to know his purposeâto right an old wrong. Exactly how to accomplish thisâwell, there was another unknown. It would reveal itself, bit by bit, in its own time.