Book Review for Blue Moon Bay by Lisa Wingate @LisaWingate





Blue Moon Bay
Moses Lake, Book 2
Contemporary Fiction











Back of the book:

For Seattle architect Heather Hampton, a trip back to tiny Moses Lake, Texas, is hardly in the plan. Yet because a promotion hinges on the sale of the family farmland, Heather heads to the last place she ever wanted to go. She’s determined to return home, signed contract in hand, the next day.

But the currents of Moses Lake take visitors on unexpected journeys. As Heather’s stay lengthens, she discovers a family steeped in secrets and an unexpected connection to local banker Blaine Underhill, despite his opposition to Heather’s project. With each new revelation and questions, Heather can’t help but wonder if the handsome banker—and the family she has come to know again—are crooks or crusaders. Somehow she must find out the truth before she loses everything she has worked for and everything she’s found on the shores of Moses Lake.



About the author:

Blog  (Lisa posts on Mondays.)









When not disguised as an author, I am the mother of two sons. I wanted girls. I got boys. I never dreamed that boys could be so wonderful. But that is another story.

I can't remember a time when I didn't write. I started writing books before I started school, and I never quit writing. I had a very special first-grade teacher in Peasley School in Northboro , Massachusetts , who recognized a little ability and a lot of desire in a shy transfer student. Mrs. Krackhardt wrote on my report card that she expected to see my name in the pages of a magazine one day, and I suddenly felt incredibly special. She started reading my stories to the class, and I was hooked. I quickly discovered the joy of having an audience, and set out on many, many writing projects.Even though I always dreamed of becoming a writer, I didn't begin pursuing the goal in earnest until after college, marriage, a career as a journalist and technical writer, and then the birth of my oldest son (ordered girl, got boy, fell in love with boy).

My grandmother came to stay with me when the baby was small, and together we decided to plant flowerbeds in front of my house. One day, when the baby was fussy, we had to go inside rather than finishing the flowerbed. Grandma bundled the baby and sat down in the chair with him, and soon he was quietly drifting off to sleep. As the afternoon sun streamed in the window, Grandma leaned back, closed her eyes, and began telling me the story of her life, and her flowerbeds, and the lessons she learned there. That story, "Time for Tending Roses," eventually became the inspiration for my first mainstream novel, Tending Roses, which was published by New American Library (Penguin Putnam) in June, 2001.

These days--several years, several books, two family relocations, one boy (ordered girl, got boy, boy is wonderful again), and thousands of words after my grandmother told me the story of her rose garden, Tending Roses is one of several books inspired by life and written during stolen mommy moments between s, homework, dirty laundry, farm animals, football games, family meals, and book-related talks and events of all kinds with readers, moms, grandmothers, sisters, and friends all around the globe. Who knew all of that would come from one quiet afternoon with Grandma and an unfinished flowerbed?

Of all of the books, Tending Roses remains my sentimental favorite, because of the real-life connection with my grandmother, but I have loved and treasured the moments spent in the “world” of each book. Each story begins with an inspiration from life, and after that, the writing is a journey of discovery. I never know where the story will go, or how it will end, or who the characters will become, until the last words are written, though as a writer and as a person, my heart always goes to happy endings. So many of today's sound bites are sensational, and awful, and when you take in all of those things, it is easy to lose faith in the world and in the goodness of people. I want to create books that are entertaining, but also good for the soul-- that don't leave readers feeling sad or disappointed, or wishing they hadn't read the book at all. I think we are all called to add something good to the world, to inspire and uplift, to add our colors to the canvas. I have met so many people who have wonderful ways of doing that. I admire them. I want to be like them. I love to write about them.



My thoughts:

Welcome back to Moses Lake! What? You’ve never been there. Well pull up a chair and get acquainted with this wonderful place. Some of you were first introduced to Moses Lake in Larkspur Cove. For those that didn’t have that pleasure don’t fret. Blue Moon Bay can easily be read as a stand-alone book.

As with other books from Lisa Wingate, this one is filled with nuggets of truth wrapped in an intriguing story. There’s a bit of something for everyone. You have romance, mystery, and a cast of unforgettable characters.

Poor Heather! She’s gone through a major family tragedy and just wants to live a normal life, preferably away from her abnormal family. She goes home to take care of what should be some quick family business only to be drawn back in.

I love to mark my favorite quotes in books. This one has so many sticky tabs in it that it is beginning to look like a porcupine! I am so NOT a back of the book reader, but I must leave you with a quote from the end of the book that has me weeping with joy even after I’ve read it several times to myself and to others.
“The future is a blank page, but not a mystery.

The truth of that small phrase, of that plain-spoken proverb from the wall of wisdom was so clear to me now. Though we only read the story in due time, the books of our lives have been already written. God has drawn us in shades of charcoal and pastel, known our hours, seen our days, laid down our paths, created each of us as unique and uniquely loved. Our lives come as a blank canvas only because we cannot see as He sees. Before we can conceive our stories, He has watched them in His mind’s eye, and not the stroke of a pen happens at random.

Above the book, the Architect watches with a broader eye, a greater plan. He knows what is to be written on every page.”

I beg you to go get the book. You won’t be sorry, because there is a part of Heather that’s in all of us!


“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or
Services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it
on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally
and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance
With the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: 
“Guides concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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