Tuesday Memes: Up At Butternut Lake

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where you can share the first paragraph, or a few, of a book you are reading or thinking about reading soon.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Today I am spotlighting Up At Butternut Lake by Mary McNear

In the tradition of Kristin Hannah and Susan Wiggs, Mary McNear introduces readers to the town of Butternut Lake and to the unforgettable people who call it home.

It’s summer, and after ten years away, Allie Beckett has returned to her family’s cabin beside tranquil Butternut Lake, where as a teenager she spent so many carefree days. She’s promised her five-year-old son, Wyatt, they will be happy there. She’s promised herself this is the place to begin again after her husband’s death in Afghanistan. The cabin holds so many wonderful memories, but from the moment she crosses its threshold Allie is seized with doubts. Has she done the right thing uprooting her little boy from the only home he’s ever known?

Allie and her son are embraced by the townsfolk, and her reunions with old acquaintances—her friend Jax, now a young mother of three with one more on the way, and Caroline, the owner of the local coffee shop—are joyous ones. And then there are newcomers like Walker Ford, who mostly keeps to himself—until he takes a shine to Wyatt . . . and to Allie.

Everyone knows that moving forward is never easy, and as the long, lazy days of summer take hold, Allie must learn to unlock the hidden longings of her heart, and to accept that in order to face the future she must also confront—and understand—what has come before.

Opening Paragraph

    “Okay, sleepyhead, time to wake up,” Allie said, reaching into the backseat of the car and giving her five-year-old son, Wyatt, a gentle prod. “We’re here. We’re at the cabin.” Wyatt stirred but didn’t wake up. She didn’t blame him. It had been a long day. Make that a long week, she corrected herself. And, if she were really counting, it had been a long two years. But she tried, whenever possible, not to count. it didn’t make the time go any faster, or the loss and easier to bear.

My Teaser

   The phone rang then, interrupting her thoughts. She reached over to the bedside table and answered it, hoping it would be Daisy.

page 52

So...what do you think? Is this one you would pick up? Leave a comment below!