I can't say enough about Mary McNear's debut novel UP AT BUTTERNUT LAKE. This is an emotional and heartwarming tale that is sure to appeal to many many readers. It's got that small town feel with awesome and very real characters and a little romance thrown in. UP AT BUTTERNUT LAKE is the perfect comfort read! Grab a cup of coffee, snag your favorite blanket, and get on the couch with this book! UP AT BUTTERNUT LAKE is the first in The Butternut Lake Trilogy, with the second one, Butternut Summer, out later this summer and I can't wait to read it!

Allie's husband, Gregg, was killed in Afghanistan a few years ago and she and her five year old son Wyatt are still trying to deal with the grief of it all. Allie decides to move them up to Butternut Lake where her family owns a cabin and where she spent many happy summers growing up. Maybe this will be a place of healing and starting over for her and Wyatt. She hasn't been there for years and Gregg was never there so maybe it won't hurt so much for them like their current house does. Everywhere she looks and everywhere she goes, she sees Gregg.

The town of Butternut Lake takes in Allie and Wyatt like they have known them all their lives. There's Caroline who runs the local diner and is struggling with missing her daughter since she left home for college. It's always been the two of them and she is having a hard time dealing with her empty nest. Needless to say she welcomes Allie and Wyatt with open arms. Then there is Allie's friend Jax who she has missed terribly and is exactly what Allie and Wyatt need. Jax has her own family now with kids of her own but they accept Allie and Wyatt into their family in no time. Last but not least, there is the hot and gorgeous Walker who owns a boatyard who is taken with Allie's beauty from the very first glimpse he has of her.

As the months go on, Allie can't help her attraction to Walker and Wyatt really likes him. He also lives across the lake from her and she finds herself staring for hours on end at his cabin and wondering about Walker. Yet Allie feels guilty for being attracted to him and even for thinking of maybe having a relationship with a man. In order for Allie to move forward she has to face her past and finally say goodbye to her husband. The question is can she do that and does she even want to? Walker tries to be patient with her, but Allie can't get past the guilt and asks Walker for some time. Now things are going to get very interesting as well as frustrating for them both.

I can see UP AT BUTTERNUT LAKE being chosen for a book club read as it deals with many different emotions and problems . There is heartache, grieving, loneliness, lies, but also forgiveness, healing, and letting go. Mary McNear does a great job of Allie going through the healing process and you feel like you are right there with her, feeling her guilt and her self doubt. UP AT BUTTERNUT LAKE is the perfect way to spend a day getting lost in a book. Once you start, you want be able to keep yourself from flipping through the pages. I was hooked from the very first page. Mary grabbed my heart strings and never let them go until the very last page.

Book Summary

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.