Sonnet Romano is back in Avalon to serve as maid of honor at
best friend Daisy's wedding. Growing up, all she could
think about was getting out of this small town to see the
world. Now she lives in New York, dates the campaign manager
of her father's Senate race, and works at UNESCO helping
children around the world. She's happy to visit Avalon but
has no plans to live there, even if she's discovered that
childhood friend Zach Alger is a hottie who rocks her boat.
Everything changes when Sonnet learns that her mother is
pregnant and has health issues that make it extremely high
risk. Sonnet puts her life in New York on hold to help her
family through the crisis. She hopes to reestablish an easy
friendship with Zach but he's not cooperating. He bristles
every time she brings up wanting to be friends. The tension
mounts when they both find themselves working on a reality
show filming at Camp Kioga featuring an ex-con celebrity
singer mentoring inner-city children. Soon, Sonnet finds
herself torn between the life she should want in New York
and the love-filled life she's rediscovering in Avalon.
RETURN TO WILLOW LAKE is sweet, sad, hopeful, and
romantic...all the emotional twists and turns that fans have
come to expect from the Lakeshore Chronicles series. We have
followed Zach and Sonnet as they appeared in the background
of a number of books and it's extremely satisfying to see
them get their own happy ending. While the story can be
read as a standalone, I would recommend reading the earlier
books in the series. Sonnet and Zach are separated or at
odds for much of the book and I think appreciating their
romance requires knowing the backstory. Nina's health
issues serves as a vehicle to bring Sonnet back to Avalon
but they also add depth and emotional richness, and serve to
demonstrate why this town is so great when everyone rally's
around the family.
Sonnet Romano's life is almost perfect. She has the ideal
career, the ideal boyfriend, and has just been offered a
prestigious fellowship. There's nothing more a woman
wants—except maybe a baby…brother?
When Sonnet finds out
her mother is unexpectedly expecting, and that the pregnancy
is high risk, she puts everything on hold—the job, the
fellowship, the boyfriend—and heads home to Avalon. Once her
mom is out of danger, Sonnet intends to pick up her life
where she left off.
But when her mother receives a
devastating diagnosis, Sonnet must decide what really
matters in life, even if that means staying in Avalon and
taking a job that forces her to work alongside her biggest,
and maybe her sweetest, mistake—award-winning filmmaker Zach
Alger. So Sonnet embarks on a summer of laughter and tears,
of old dreams and new possibilities, and of finding the home
of her heart.