Tag Archives: Susan Wiggs

Spotlight – Map of the Heart

09 Wednesday May 2018

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With 400+ reviews, this one is getting some absolutely fabulous comments!

*****

Map of the Heart

by Susan Wiggs

Genre Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher Avon Books

Publication Date April 24, 2018

Blurb:

Widowed by an unspeakable tragedy, accomplished photographer Camille Palmer has made her peace with the past and is content with the quiet safety of life with her teenage daughter, Julie, in a sleepy coastal town. Then the arrival of a mysterious package breaks open the door to her family’s secret past. In uncovering a hidden history, Camille has no idea that she’s about to embark on an adventure that will shake her complacency and utterly transform her.

Camille, Julie, and Camille’s father, Henry, return to the French town of Henry’s youth, sparking unexpected memories for him—recollections that will lead them back to the dark days of the Second World War. And it is in the stunning Provençal countryside that they will uncover their family’s surprising history.

While Provence offers answers about the past, it also holds the key to Camille’s future. Along the way, she meets an American historian who stirs a passion deep within her—a feeling that she thought she’d never experience again.

Brilliantly written and infused with Susan Wiggs’s trademark style, this hugely popular author has created her biggest, most powerful story yet in MAP OF THE HEART—an instant New York Times bestseller on the hardcover list. MAP OF THE HEART beautiful and heartfelt novel that celebrates the bonds of family and pays homage to the sacrifices of the past.

Amazon https://amzn.to/2uuSsxY

Barnes & Noble https://goo.gl/BYfc8Z

Google Play https://goo.gl/Uxw4bF

iBooks https://apple.co/2umQsHM

*****

Author Info:

SUSAN WIGGS is the author of more than fifty novels, including the beloved Lakeshore Chronicles series and her most recent, instant New York Times bestseller Family Tree. Her award-winning books have been translated into two dozen languages. She lives with her husband on an island in Washington State’s Puget Sound.

Website http://www.susanwiggs.com/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/susanwiggs

Twitter https://www.twitter.com/susanwiggs

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21155.Susan_Wiggs

Amazon https://amzn.to/2I7fuwy

*****

Book Review – Family Tree

31 Wednesday Aug 2016

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27213227Family Tree

by Susan wiggs

Often, the most poignant journey is coming home, and no one else can evoke all the uncertainty and joys of those life passages quite like Susan Wiggs. FAMILY TREE starts with a little over the top drama: Annie Rush is the creator and producer of one of America’s most successful TV cooking shows.  Her life seems perfect: her husband is her leading man, their ratings are through the roof…and she’s just found out she’s pregnant.  As she runs from an interview with one of the nation’s biggest weekly magazines to the set to tell her husband the happy news, everything changes in an instant. She walks in on him in a compromising position with the female star of the show.  As she backs away, stunned, a set fixture topples on her, sending Annie into a coma…which lasts for a year.

When Annie wakes up, it’s to find herself in her hometown of Switchback, Vermont: Martin airlifted her there with proxy divorce papers after the accident.  She retreats to her family home on Switchback’s maple farm, helping tend the generations-old maple farm and running into her former high school flame.  Enveloped in the sugar-spun warmth of her mother, free-spirited brother, nieces and nephews, Annie starts to cook up a new life for herself, with the help of a discovery of a maple cookbook written by her grandmother many years past.  FAMILY TREE is the story of Annie’s triumph over betrayal, coming to terms with the past to mix up a clear-eyed future.  And, just as the author is in her own kitchen, the book is clear-eyed, big-hearted, funny and wise.

I have to be honest on a couple of things.  First, I’m not a huge fan of authors having flashbacks in their story – I don’t normally like that back and forth between what’s happening now and what happened before without having an idea of where things are going.  A lot of time I feel like it is just a way to try to create suspense when a more linear track can’t and in a poor writer’s hands I feel like the blanks are there to add length to the book.  Good thing for me Wiggs is not a poor writer.  Even though we jump back and forth she keeps the stories intertwined well and we got an idea of where things were going, we were just waiting to get there.  Still not my favorite thing but more palatable when done well like it is here.

The other thing I had a problem with was how Annie and Fletcher keep making the same mistakes over and over again, both in the present and the past.  I would have thought that at some point they would have figured things out but apparently not and I really wanted to smack them by the time we reached the end of the book.  Luckily they figure things out (because this is a HEA kind of story) so I was able to control my more violent urges  🙂

Overall, I was kinda surprised at how this book went – I think that the blurb isn’t really a good indication of the story you get.  Because of that I didn’t have a good idea of what to expect but Annie is recovering in the hospital for a good portion of it (I’m a little fuzzy on the exact time frame through the whole book) and for the rest she is spent trying to figure out how to get her feet under her again.  And of course those flashbacks to her history in Switchback and with Fletcher, which you know going in doesn’t end happily.

While it’s not easy for Annie to figure out where she goes from here, as you can imagine (which is par for the course with Wiggs), her struggle is heartfelt and touching.  There is sadness that you know is coming, but there are also high points to off set them – not a carefree read but rewarding.

Book Review – Candlelight Christmas

24 Tuesday Dec 2013

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For Christmas Eve, I want to share a wonderful holiday read.  Check out my latest review.

*****

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A single father who yearns to be a family man, Logan O’Donnell is determined to create the perfect Christmas for his son, Charlie. The entire O’Donnell clan arrives to spend the holidays in Avalon, a postcard-pretty town on the shores of Willow Lake, a place for the family to reconnect and rediscover the special gifts of the season.

One of the guests is a newcomer to Willow Lake—Darcy Fitzgerald. Sharp-witted, independent and intent on guarding her heart, she’s the last person Logan can see himself falling for. And Darcy is convinced that a relationship is the last thing she needs this Christmas.

Yet between the snowy silence of the winter woods, and toasty moments by a crackling fire, their two lonely hearts collide. The magic of the season brings them each a gift neither ever expected—a love to last a lifetime.

When I first discovered Susan Wiggs, I went through her “The Lakeshore Chronicles” series like it was candy.  I just couldn’t put them down and went straight from one to another until I ran out of released books.  That was shortly before Marrying Daisy Bellamy came out, which is the story of Logan’s ex … and I just couldn’t do it anymore.  I started the book and I think that it just broke my heart.  I felt so badly for Logan, who wanted to make a family so much, and I just couldn’t see it to the end – not that there is anything wrong with the book, both Julius and Daisy are fantastic.  I just loved Logan so much, all of the difficulties he’d faced and how he wanted to make things work out, that it was hard for me to get through … which is a wordy way of telling you why I was BEYOND THRILLED to see this book come out.

Logan started out as such a messed up kid, a lot of pressure from his dad and a substance abuse problem led him to be a wild child … then he knocked up Daisy Bellamy.  Once he decided to turn his life around, he did it whole-heartedly and he has definitely grown into a fantastic man and a wonderful father.  I love seeing him with Charlie.  They have a relaxed and hilarious relationship but Logan still knows how to be the grown-up.  In Logan, Wiggs has given her readers a man who they can identify with – one who is flawed but strives to do the best he can.  He’ll find a way into your heart and make himself at home.

Darcy is new but she’s just as much fun.  Her love of life got a little crumpled after her divorce but she’s starting to get it back … and spending time with Logan and his family helps even more.  I love these two together – they are fun, funny and I fell in love right along with them.

But the best part of any Wiggs book is that it isn’t just a romance.  It is as much about the people around them, their friends and families, as it is about the couple.  They aren’t perfect but they are definitely appealing and I had a great time getting to know new people and catching up with old friends.  If you’ve never read one of “The Lakeshore Chronicles” books, you can definitely start right here (and those that have already picked up the book so they know what I’m saying).  You’ll meet some of the characters from the previous stories (more than just Logan’s family) but you don’t have to know their history.  At most, you’ll be tempted to start at the beginning and work your way through them all.  I know I’m adding those two books I missed to my To Be Read file, because now that Logan finds his happy ending, I think I’ll be able to make it to the end.

Candlelight Christmas is the perfect choice for a holiday read, or any time of year.  It’s an addictive, feel-good, happy-ending, give-you-the-warm-and-fuzzys story that should not be missed.