She’s Got a Way

In this charming contemporary, third in the Echo Lake series (following Heart Like Mine), Gabriela O’Brien, the idealistic house mother to a quartet of troublesome prep-school girls, finds unexpected love and fulfillment after she and her charges are temporarily exiled to a rundown camp for a month. Meant as a last-ditch punishment for the girls, it’s no picnic for Gabi either, and she sees her chances of making a difference at the elite Briarwood Academy slipping away. But Camp Echo’s hunky handyman, Luke Magellan, has a knack for helping people: soon he’s showing Gabi’s students how to work together and survive in the outdoors, while teaching Gabi the ways of love. With a wry, self-aware sense of the rules of romantic comedy, this romance hits all the usual notes. McGinnis crafts a sweet, emotionally layered tale about dropping barriers to let one’s true nature shine, and the result is an entertaining, if predictable, happily ever after. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary. (Sept.)