Susan Wiggs Lakeside Cottage

Lakeside Cottage

Susan Wiggs

Mira, Aug 2005, $7.50, 416 pp.

ISBN: 0778321908

Though the column Kate's Fashion Statement did not pay for food or shelter, leasing properties does but Kate Livingston enjoys reporting. However, the Seattle News put her on hiatus so she takes her preadolescent son Aaron and moves into the family home in Port Angeles to decide what to do next. Any decision she makes has to factor in that Aaron has behavioral problems.

That morning she meets runaway teen California "Callie" Evans, who initially frightened Kate. Callie has been sleeping in the summer properties that she cleans for a living. Kate invites Callie to stay with them, which she does.

Former Special Forces Medical Sergeant has moved into the cottage next door. He is recovering from death threatening injuries, but mostly running from the national spotlight of risking his life to save the President from a lone gunman at Walter Reed.

This foursome shares the most wonderful summer in their respective lives. However, fall is coming which means getting on with lives, but after a couple months like a loving family will the joy end with each traveling a separate path?

Though only two of the four key players are related by blood, LAKESIDE COTTAGE is a delightful family drama starring a likable quartet suffering from individual traumas. Each has a trust problem yet that remarkable summer they come together as a tight unit being there for one another. Though the romance is a solid support subplot, this contemporary fiction is a strong interrelation character study with limited but exhilarating action moments.

Harriet Klausner