Review: Snowfall at Willow Lake

Snowfall at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs
published by Mira in January 2008

International lawyer Sophie Bellamy has dedicated her life to helping people in war-torn countries. But when she survives a hostage situation, she remembers what matters most - the children she loves back home. Haunted by regrets, she returns to the idyllic Catskills village of Avalon on the shores of Willow Lake, determined to repair the bonds with her family.

There Sophie discovers the surprising rewards of small-town life - including an unexpected passion for Noah Shepherd, the local veterinarian. Noah has a healing touch for anything with four legs, but he's never had any luck with women - until Sophie. Snowfall at Willow Lake speaks from the heart about all the loves that fill a woman's life, and all the ways that love is tested and made to grow. It's the story of what comes after a woman survives an unspeakable horror and finds her way home, to healing and redemption and a new chance at happiness.

Genre: contemporary, women's fiction
Series: The Lakeshore Chronicles, book #4

The Story: The story is as described in the back blurb. I don't think I have anything else to add.

My Opinion: I dislike Sophie Bellamy and have disliked her since Book 1 of the series. I just can't stand her and was quite disappointed when I learnt she would have her own book. Ugh. She's a modern woman with an important career. Okay, I get it. I also understand why she would have difficulty to conciliate family and career. In her case, she couldn't handle family and career, so she chose her career and in exchange, she had to give up her marriage. In a way, it wasn't a bad decision, considering that the love between George and her was long gone.What annoys me about her is that she made her choice, so stops whining, stops complaining that you're misunderstood... it makes you annoying.

As for her children, perhaps I think she's a bad mother, perhaps not, I'm not even sure and that's not important... what's important is what she thinks or how she thinks and that's what makes me dislike her soooo much. 1) The way she belittles people because they don't understand the fact that she chose her career. She's all like: my work is important, why can't people understand... Because people have different priorities. 2) The way she's so reluctant to say her kids chose to live with their father over her... all because usually, mothers are the ones who have custody and she assumes that people will think she's a bad mother. Is that really important what other people think? Does the fact that your son lives with his father makes you automatically a bad mother? No, I don't think so. Actually, I think that the fact that she wanted the kids to live with her, uprooting them and making them live in a foreign country where they didn't even understand the language, that made her a bad mother. Someone so selfish that she would put her needs and her image before the happiness of her kids.

So as you can see, I didn't come in this book, liking Sophie and I surely didn't fall in love with her either. It might sound like all small details, but she just rubbed me the wrong way. The romance story? Forgettable. I don't get why Nathan was attracted to her. Sure, she's pretty, but that's about it... Also, I think that at first, all Sophie wanted was sex... not even a relationship... and I don't get how they ended up together. I mean, readers didn't really get to see the relationship develops and become more. So I think that the ending was quite unbelievable to me.

Aside from Sophie and Nathan, the book mainly focuses on Sophie becoming a mother and Sophie's kids - Daily, the single mother, and Max, the teenager. We actually saw more of these two than Sophie and Nathan's relationship...

So all in all, I wouldn't say this is really a romance... more like women's fiction instead. Also, the author is taking a break from the series, but she says she'll come back to it later... I'm going to have to see who are going to be the main characters before buying the next book.

My Grade: C-

Review: The Winter Lodge by Susan Wiggs

Hey guys :)

I've been reading like crazy since last Friday/Thursday... I think I was able to read 6 books ^^; and so obviously, I'm again, behind on my reviews... Not that I was able to catch up, but now, I have a TBR list (To Be Reviewed) and not to be confound with a TBR pile (To Be Read) LOL. The worst is that most of the books I've just read were great! so it's quite difficult to choose which one to review first. But here we go...


The Winter Lodge by Susan Wiggs: 4.25/5

published by Mira in February 2007

Jenny Majesky's life has been busy lately. During the summer, she finally discovered who was her father and has gained a half-sister. In addition, her grandmother who've raised her has passed away and for the first time, Jenny is "alone." When she was younger, Jenny had dreams of leaving the small town to go to college and become an author. Nowadays, she is trying to write a cooking book with her grandmother's baking recipes which has made the bakery they own together so successful. However, Jenny's life takes another sudden turn when her house is destroyed by a fire. Having no where to go, she ends up living temporarily with the local police chief, Rourke McKnight with whom she has a past.

Genre: contemporary romance
Series: The Lakeshore Chronicles, Book #2

Review: Last summer, when I read Summer at the Willow Lake, the first book of this series, I was disappointed. It didn't stop me from buying The Winter Lodge as soon as it came out in store; however, I did put off this book for almost two months... and I shouldn't have. The Winter Lodge is a very good book and Ms Wiggs entirely redeemed herself with this one. Now, I can't wait to read the next one.

The Characters - We met Jenny briefly in the previous book, as she was reunited with her father and half-sister. Personally, I liked Jenny better than Olivia. I thought that she was more real, down-to-earth and likable. I understand that Olivia's parents divorce was hard on her, but it's really nothing compared to Jenny. Jenny's mother had an habit of leaving Jenny with her grandparents while she would come and leave, but when Jenny was 4 y.o., her mother left and never came back and there hasn't been news of her whereabouts ever since. Olivia has both her parents, all her grandparents, cousins, uncles and all... She had a family around her and she knew where they were, which wasn't the case with Jenny. Anyway, I'll stop comparing the two sisters. Jenny's life wasn't easy, but she was raised with love from her grandparents. When she was a teenager, her grandfather died and when she was about to leave for college, her grandmother collapsed because of a stroke. Jenny had to choose and she decided to put aside her dreams and stay at home to take care of her grandmother as well as their successful bakery. Now that her grandmother is gone, she's lonely which is understandable... What I liked about Jenny is her inner strength which made her quite an admirable person. Rourke was quite the male character, although if I ask myself, I don't really understand him. He's the quiet, intense, overprotective and over-responsible type of man... It seems to me that somehow, he thinks he doesn't deserve to be happy, but I don't know why. Also, I would have liked more insight of him... See, Rourke is the son of a senator... so why did he decide to break all link with his father and become a local police chief? So Rourke is a bit under-developed in my opinion, but still a great guy and I really liked him a lot.

There's also a panoply of secondary characters in this book, some that we've met in the previous book. One who stands out is Daisy Bellamy, Jenny and Olivia's cousin, who gets a storyline of her own. Do I understand that teenage girl, nope, but then I haven't gone through what a parents' divorce, so I can't really judge. However, it'll be quite interesting when she gets her book.

The Story & Writing- This book mainly focus on relationships, but this time, the main characters have a decent amount of screentime and their relationship actually grows and get resolves. I don't want to spoil too much, but here's the jest of it: basically, Jenny met Rourke and Joey, Rourke's best friend, when they were young and there was basically a love triangle between the three of them... However, almost from the beginning, Rourke decided to step down, because he thought Jenny and Joey deserved to be happy. Since Jenny and Joey's engagement, Jenny and Rourke have been avoiding each and it's still going on after Joey's death... till the day Jenny's house becomes ash. She needs someone and Rourke is there for her. Obviously, both love each other and I like how Ms Wiggs wrote their relationship. I also thought that the flashbacks in this book were easier to follow and made readers understand Rourke and Jenny's past better. Oh, another thing I like is how Ms Wiggs connected all the characters. It was pretty impressive to see how most of the characters knew each other, have talked to each other, had an impact in their life... it gave a book something more.

The Cover - Cover is nice, but a bit unexceptional. I think I like spring/summer scenes better tho.

Am I keeping this book? Yes :D

Anything else? Book #3 is titled Dockside and is supposed to come out in August 2007. The main characters will be Nina Romano and Greg Bellamy... Ms Wiggs is also currently working on Book #4, which will be Greg's ex-wife, Sophie Bellamy's story... hmmm, not my favorite character, but we'll see.

Review: Summer at the Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs

Summer at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs: 3/5

What to say about this book? Well I thought that the way the story was told was very similar to Susan Wiggs' other book Summer by the Sea; however, the story wasn't as compelling. When I started reading the book and saw how similar it was to Summer by the Sea, I thought I would really like it, but it didn't happen.

After her third failed engagement, Olivia Bellamy - expert house fluffer - decides to take on her grandmother's offer: to renovate the bungalow colony/summer camp in Catskills that her family owns so her grandparents can celebrate their 50th marriage anniversary. Although she went to Camp Kioga every summer when she was younger, the place doesn't hold Olivia's fondest memories... instead, to Olivia, it reminds her painfully of the time when her parents divorced and she was overweight and an outcast, if it hadn't been for her cousins, Camp Kioga would have been horrible. In addition, Camp Kioga is also the place where she met Connor Davis - her first everything: first love, first kiss, first broken heart. So when she goes back to Catskills, she meets Connor again as he is the only contractor available. So Summer at Willow Lake is the story of how Olivia and Connor fall in love again with a series of flashbacks of their camp summers and a multitude of secondary characters.

I don't know what's up with me lately and I'm starting to wonder if the books I'm reading are only okay because I'm being too harsh with them... sigh... Anyway, the problem with Summer At Willow Lake is that nothing happened and too much happened at the same time. I'm not making sense, am I? I think it all has to do with the pace of the book... In one chapter, Connor just accepted the contract and in the next, a few weeks have already passed and so much progress was done... then, the next thing you know, summer is over and the grandparents are renewing her vows. So time went too fast, but it seems Olivia and Connor relationship didn't progress at all.

My second complaint: way too many secondary characters and subplots ^^; you had Olivia's best friend, Freddy, and all her family (father, uncle, cousins, grandparents, long-lost sister) and then, as if it wasn't enough, the author brings in Julian, Connor's brother half-way in the book... and all of them have some a little storyline. I like my book to focus on the main couple or at least, the main characters, so I found the secondary characters disrupting. And because the focus wasn't on the main characters, I thought that Olivia and Connor came accross a bit bleh. Olivia is very insecure, so not a really fun character to read about and Connor, well I thought he lacked a tiny bit of depth.

Aside from that, the book was okay... relaxing. You didn't have to think much, wonder much... There was no major investigation or murder, it solely focused on relationship. The openining scene was funneh too (she's hanging on the top of the flag pole ^^;)

So, not Susan Wiggs at her best, but I'm going to keep the book and see how the next ones in the Chronicles are before making up my mind a 100%.