Harbor Lights

April 15, 2009
Devastated when her last two plays flopped, writer Bree O'Brien leaves Chicago and heads home to Chesapeake Shores, MD, where her amateur floral-arranging skills save a wedding at her sister's inn. When she sees a vacant shop on her way home, she impulsively signs a lease and is on her way to becoming the proprietor of Flowers on Main. Unfortunately, the only floral supplier in town is Jake Collins, the man she left behind and now the man who wants her gone. Sparks fly in a lively tale that is overflowing with family conflict and warmth and the possibility of rekindled love. Second in the "Chesapeake Shores" series.

Stunned and heartbroken when his medic wife dies in Iraq, paramedic Kevin O'Brien closes down his life in Arlington, VA, and brings his young son home to Chesapeake Shores in "Harbor Lights". Family support and plenty of meddling abound, but, strangely, nothing seems right until he meets bookstore owner Shanna Carlyle, a woman whose baggage rivals, or even exceeds, his own. Warm, complex, and satisfying, this latest addition to the series sensitively and realistically deals with serious issues and satisfactorily resolves them. The series launched with "The Inn at Eagle Point" (Apr. ISBN 978-0-7783-2626-7. pap. $7.99), as Wall Street refugee Abby O'Brien comes into conflict with her old beau Trace Riley. Woods divides her time between Colonial Beach, VA, and Key Biscayne, FL.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2009
Kevin OBrien met and married Georgia in a whirlwind courtship while both were medics stationed in Iraq. When Georgia was killed before their son Davy was a year old, Kevins life fell apart. He moved back home to Chesapeake Shores, drifting aimlesslythrough his days. Shanna Carlyle recently moved to the Maryland community to open a bookstore/caf' in an effort to make a new life for herself after her marriage ended badly. She and Kevin are immediately attracted to one another, but both are wary of being hurt again. As Woods continues her extended contemporary romance series, she enrichesits scope by dramatizing the high price paid by entire families when a beloved member doesnt return from military service, and by revealingthe environmental impact of development on the vulnerableChesapeake Bay.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)