Dockside by Susan Wiggs Release Date: June 1, 2007 Publisher: MIRA Book #3 in the Lakeshore Chronicles Number of pages: 400 Kindle Edition Source: MCL Contemporary Romance M/F Rating: PG-13 Read 2/14/18 to 2/17/18
This series is quite a bit different from most series that I’ve read. Where most series have peripheral characters in one book that get their own story later, each book ending with the HEA of the hero and heroine. This series also has a HEA for the main characters (thank goodness, I love the HEA!) but the peripheral characters are much more woven into the story. While this book is primarily about Greg and Nina, we already know a lot about them from the two previous books. And Greg’s daughter figures prominently in all three stories. It’s almost like the series is a soap opera…and I mean that in a good way. Sometimes certain characters are in the forefront while others get snippets of stories woven through the whole thing. Later, those characters get brought to the forefront but the original characters are still there very prominently.
As much as I enjoyed the story between Nina and Greg, I really cannot get enough of Greg’s daughter. Daisy has had me interested from the very first book, Summer at Willow Lake, in which she was a ticked off teenager that was angry with the world because of her parents’ marriage falling apart. I loved her friendship with Julian as it intrigued me. In the next book, The Winter Lodge, Daisy continued to win my heart over and keep me curious as to what would come next for her. She was still hurting and lashing out about the divorce, but she also grew up so much in that story. My love of Daisy continued in this story. Although we don’t get a lot from her perspective, there’s a lot going on about her in this book. I cannot wait until she gets her own book.
Nina was quite a frustration to me. She had to grow up way to fast when she was a teen and handled being a single mom with grace and dignity. As mature as she ended up, she never reached maturity when it came to relationships. I’m glad her best friend, Jenny, and her daughter, Sonnet, continued to call her out on her true feelings and kept encouraging her to chase happiness.
Even with all I loved about this story, there was something missing for me that I had found in the other books. I can’t put my finger on it, but I was aware of it nonetheless. I would still highly recommend this author and this book, but there was something about it that left me wanting more.
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