Dear friends:
I am the world’s worst when it comes to saying goodbye. Almost no one — with the possible exception of a couple of ex-boyfriends I was eager to leave behind — is ever out of my life entirely. So letting go of the O’Briens is no easy task. I totally understand the feelings of all you readers who want them back with new stories after The Summer Garden, which hits stores Tuesday, January 31.
So....I’m working on it, mulling it over, waiting for inspiration and a plan to take shape. Stay tuned to see if all those O’Brien grandchildren can persuade me that it’s not quite time to leave Chesapeake Shores.
In the meantime, though, there is one last O’Brien adult — Luke — whose story remains to be told. If you read An O’Brien Family Christmas, you know he met an impossible, maddening woman in Ireland, one who caught his fancy at first glimpse. We all knew he couldn’t possibly end up with the predatory Kristen Lewis, after all!
To complicate things, though, not only is Moira, shall we say, a challenge, but she is also the granddaughter of Nell’s old flame. And when she appears in Chesapeake Shores right along with Dillon, things are bound to get complicated. Add in Mick’s reaction to things heating up between Nell and Dillon, Luke’s desire to match the success of his siblings and cousins by opening an Irish pub in Chesapeake Shores, and Kristin not being so quick to let him go and The Summer Garden has plenty going on.
I hope you’ll find this final story — for now, anyway — a satisfying way to wrap things up. And rather than saying goodbye to the O’Briens, let’s just use the French phrase “au revoir” . . . until we meet again.
And while we wait to see what might happen next in Chesapeake Shores, keep in mind there will be three new Sweet Magnolias books this summer, along with a Sweet Magnolias cookbook and an entirely new series set in the Outer Banks in summer 2013!
All best,
Sherryl Woods
