The Giving Heart

A handsome land developer butts heads with the woman safeguarding her family’s trees, Lila Sloan, in this sweet, if overlong, Christmas romance, the second Summer Island contemporary (after The One Who Stays). Lila Sloan, reeling from a recent sexual assault, agrees to watch her sister’s inn on Summer Island, Mich., over the holiday season to assuage her guilt over being absent in the past. Beck Grainger comes to the island to escape the memory of his judgmental father, and hoping to build on the gorgeous land. But when Lila throws herself in front of his bulldozer to protect the trees that were part of her childhood, development halts and sparks fly. Despite their fundamental disagreement, their chemistry is undeniable. Thrown together by the smallness of the island, Lila and Beck grow closer, helping each other to work through past traumas. The back-and-forth between these two stubborn characters is excessively drawn out, but their happy ending is well earned, and the pervasive Christmas atmosphere is sure to put readers in the holiday spirit. (Oct.)