Happily Ever Alaska

With this gentle second-chance romance, Griffin returns to the bucolic hamlet of Sweet Home, Alaska (last visited in Once upon a Cabin). High school teacher and baker Lolly Crocker never stopped loving her high school sweetheart, Shaun Montana—but her controlling mother, not wanting Lolly to get tied down so young, urged her to break up with Shaun and play the field in college. Three failed engagements later, Lolly’s back in Sweet Home for good—and back to pining for the only man she’s truly loved. Computer programmer Shaun, for his part, is in town to care for his mother after a health scare, and he’s determined to protect his heart by keeping his distance from Lolly, whose reasons for ending things he has never known. Still, after Lolly loses her job due to budget cuts, Shaun is there to comfort her and encourage her to take a chance on opening her own bakery. Given Shaun’s resolve not to fall back in love and Lolly’s guilt over the past, it will take almost losing each other yet again to get these two to face their feelings. Griffin’s characters feel three-dimensional and the emotional roadblocks to their relationship ring true. Lovers of small-town romances will eat this up. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Dec.)