The Winter Lodge »

On the longest night of the year, Jenny Majesky loses everything in a devastating house fire. But among the ashes she finds an unusual treasure hidden amid her grandfather's belongings, one that starts her on a search for the truth, and on a path toward a life that she never imagined. The Winter Lodge, a remote cabin owned by her half sister on the shores of Willow Lake, becomes a safe refuge for Jenny, where she and local police chief Rourke McKnight try to sort out the mysteries revealed by the fire.

But when a blizzard traps them together, Jenny, accustomed to the safe predictability of running the family bakery, suddenly doesn't feel so secure. For even as Rourke shelters her from the storm outside, she knows her heart is at risk. Now, following her dreams might mean walking away from her one chance at love.

Publishers Weekly

In her latest bustling romance, Wiggs cooks up a rich stew of family plots past and present, spiced with plenty of generations-old Polish recipes, in this second installment of the Lakeshore Chronicles (after Summer at Willow Lake). Returning to Camp Kioga in Avalon, a small New York town where the wealthy Bellamy family has deep roots, Wiggs trains the spotlight on Avalon native Jenny Majesky, a food columnist and bakery owner who learned in the last Lakeshore tale that Phillip Bellamy is her birth father. Alone and grieving following the death of her beloved grandmother-Jenny's mom left her at age four-Jenny's life turns even worse when her house burns to the ground. Stunned, homeless and keeping afloat with a little help from the medicine cabinet, Jenny moves in with Avalon police chief and notorious lady's man Roarke McKnight, a friend she fell out with after a night of drunken, mind-blowing sex a decade before. With the ease of a master, Wiggs introduces complicated, flesh-and-blood characters into her idyllic but identifiable smalltown setting, sets in motion a refreshingly honest romance, resolves old issues and even finds room for a little mystery. The result is as appealing as the heroine's Polish Apple Strudel, the recipe for which is thankfully included. (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.