REVIEW: Summer on Mirror Lake by JoAnn Ross

In Summer on Mirror Lake by JoAnn Ross, Gabriel Mannion returns to his hometown of Honeymoon Harbor after suffering a panic attack at his mentor’s funeral. The doctor advised him to take a break from Wall Street or risk ending up like his friend. He spends most of his time alone, until librarian Chelsea Prescott shows up after hearing he was building a Viking boat. She’s determined to let her bring the kids from the summer program to see it. While he initially refuses, Chelsea won’t take no for an answer and he finds himself unable to say no to her as well. When Chelsea finds herself unexpectedly a foster parent to two children, Gabe offers for them to live in the house he’s renting since it has more room than her home. As the four of them start acting as a family, Gabe needs to decide if it’s enough to give up New York for.

Both Gabe and Chelsea were great characters. Chelsea has a big heart, trying to do what’s best for both the kids in her summer library program and for Hailey and Hannah, the two children who had been neglected by their foster mother. Gabe, for how much he seemed to like acting like a loner, also had a big heart. He made a lot of money, but he also gave a lot of it away, including giving it to people to help them start their businesses and setting up scholarships. He was wonderful with the children, even allowing Hannah, the oldest sister, to help him work on the boat with him when she showed an interest.

Chelsea isn’t close to her father, and I felt things were unresolved with that. It’s not so much that I expected them to make up and be a happy family after what he did, but I expected she would have at least have given him an answer to his invitation to joining him and his new family on a trip. Or telling him that she was becoming a foster parent. It seemed like that was just brought up in the beginning of the book to show how distant their relationship was, and then it was dropped and not mentioned again.

It’s also never really clear why Gabe was so set on leaving Honeymoon Harbor and making a lot of money. The rest of his siblings seem to be fine and accept life in the town, but it was never enough for him. I would have liked to have known what drove him to New York and made him feel like he needed to make a lot of money in order to be successful.

Summer on Mirror Lake is about opening your heart and finding love and family when you least expect it. It has a little bit of everything—love, happiness, heartbreak, and healing. Readers who enjoy small-town romances will enjoy this one.

Book Info:

Publication: June 11, 2019 | HQN Books | Honeymoon Harbor #3

When he lands in the emergency room after collapsing at the funeral of a colleague and friend, Wall Street hotshot Gabriel Mannion initially rejects the diagnosis of an anxiety attack. But when warned that if he doesn’t change his adrenaline-fueled, workaholic lifestyle he could end up like his friend, Gabe reluctantly returns to his hometown of Honeymoon Harbor to regroup.

As he adjusts to the sight of mountains instead of skyscrapers, Gabe discovers advantages to this small Pacific Northwest town he once couldn’t wait to escape. But it’s irresistible librarian Chelsea Prescott who, along with the two foster children she’s taken under her wing, makes slowing down seem like the best prescription ever.

Over the course of their summer romance, Gabe gets a taste of the life he might have had if he’d taken a different path. But with his return to New York City looming on the horizon, he’ll have to choose between the success he’s worked tirelessly for and a ready-made family who offers a very different, richly rewarding future…if he’ll only take the risk.