Dockside

Wiggs returns to the town of Avalon, N.Y., and the shores of picturesque Willow Lake with the fourth installment of her popular Lakeshore Chronicles (after The Winter Lodge ). Nina Romano, single mom and ex-mayor of Avalon, is just a bank loan away from realizing her lifelong dream: restoring the Inn at Willow Lake, a historic lodge once owned by the wealthy Bellamy family, and turning it into an elegant retreat. Then she finds that Greg Bellamy has beat her to the punch. Greg and Nina have been sparring since the night Greg decked the West Point cadet who had gotten her pregnant at age 15. Now, nearly 20 years later, Greg is the divorced dad of his own pregnant teen. Predictably, Greg is clueless when it comes to running a hotel, and the only person in town qualified to act as general manager—Nina—refuses to take the position. Wiggs’s uncomplicated stories are rich with life lessons, nod-along moments and characters with whom readers can easily relate. Delightful and wise, Wiggs’s latest shines. (Aug.)