The Lilac Lake Inn by Judith Keim ~ a Series Review

by Susan Roberts

Keeping a family promise can be the beginning of a whole new life for everyone in town 

Judith Keim writes heart-warming novels about women who face unexpected challenges, meet them with strength, and find love and happiness along the way, stories with heart. She is a go-to author for me when I want a book with interesting characters and a heartwarming story.

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Love by Design

August 2023; Wild Quail Publishing; 978-1959529835
audio, ebook, print (282 pages); romance

Gigi has decided to sell the Lilac Lake Inn when she realizes that it's too big of a job for her to keep running at her age.  She decides to have her granddaughters visit so that she can tell them about the sale and gift them a cottage near the inn.  The cottage needs to be renovated and must be occupied by one of them for half of each year.  If no one lives there for the 6 months of each year, the property and cottage will be given to the people who bought the Inn.

Book 1 in the series is Dani's story.  She has been working as an architect in a large firm in Boston and has been treated badly by the men in the office who work to make sure that she doesn't get credit for any of her work.  She's pretty tired of the treatment at her firm, so she jumps at the chance to move to Lilac Lake and lead the renovation project on the cottage.  The first person she meets is Brad, who is working with his brother to renovate the Inn.  He isn't really interested in a romance because he's still grieving his wife, who died several years ago.  And after her treatment by the men in her office, she certainly isn't interested.  But the more time they spend together, the more sparks that fly, and they decide that they may both be ready for love again.

This is a great book about family and love with a bit of romance and maybe a ghost!  I can't wait to read the next book in the series and find out more about one of the other sisters and the people who live in Lilac Lake.

Buy Love by Design at Amazon

Love Between the Lines

February 2024; Wild Quail Publishing; 978-1962452601
audio, ebook print (266 pages); romance

Book two in the series takes us back to the Lilac Lake Inn.  Gigi has decided to sell the inn and has offered her three granddaughters the cottage she is gifting them with the requirement that it must be occupied by one of them for at least 6 months of each year.  Book 2 is Taylor's story.

Taylor is the youngest of the three sisters.  Sometimes she felt left out because the two older sisters were closer in age and spent a lot of time together.  She is a popular author and right now she is suffering from writer's block.  She's gotten a scathing memo from her publisher about her books, and then they have the audacity to send one of the editors to help her write her new fantasy book.  She doesn't need help, and she wants to refuse, but she really doesn't have much choice.  When the editor,  Cooper, showed up to help her, she wasn't happy with the situation at all, and she made no secret of her opinion.  But the more time that Taylor and Cooper spend together, the more their relationship improves. She shows him around town, and they work on a 4th of July float together.  The more time they spend together, the more they like each other, and sparks begin to fly between them. Can they work together on a new book for Taylor's series?

I'm really enjoying this series and getting to know the three sisters better. As always, Judith Keim writes fantastic stories about women meeting challenges and finding love and happiness along the way.  

Buy Love Between the Lines at Amazon

Love Under the Stars

June 2024; Wild Quail Publishing; 978-1959529378
audio, ebook, print (260

Book three in the Lilac Inn series is all about Whitney.  Whitney and her two sisters, Dani and Taylo,r are working to restore the cottage near the Lilac Inn.  In books one and two, each of her sisters has found their happily ever after.  Will it be Whitney's turn to discover love after the turmoil in her life for the last year?

Whitney went to Hollywood at a young age and became a star.  When she left to pursue her dreams, she left Nick behind.  He was her first serious boyfriend, and she pictured them as being together forever, but her acting career ended that dream.  When she returns to help her sisters restore the cottage, her life is in turmoil.  Her former love, Zane, was a very popular actor, and when his addiction to drugs ended up killing him, social media needed someone to blame, so a small group decided to blame Whitney.  In Lilac Lake, she begins to rethink her life and decides that she wants to help children.  She sets up a children's theater to help give the children in town a chance to grow their artistic side.  All of the parents are very happy with her theater, except for one father who feels like his son should be playing baseball and not pursuing his dreams.  Danger looms with this father, but it is overpowered by the danger of the people on social media who want to punish Whitney for the loss of Zane.  Along with that, there is a ghost to find in the cottage.  Life is in turmoil, and it makes the three sisters become closer as they try to deal with the danger.  More importantly, Nick, her old high school boyfriend, still lives in town, and there are still sparks between them.  Will Whitney leave Hollywood far behind and find her happily ever after in the small town?

This is a great book about sisters (and I love books about sisters) and the love and support between them.  It's also a romantic love story with a bit of mystery and a ghost thrown in.  I don't know if there are any other books in this series, but I'm not ready to say goodbye to these characters, so I hope that the author sends us back to   Lilac Inn in the future.

Buy Love Under the Stars at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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