Fireside by Susan Wiggs

This book is 5th in the Lakeshore Chronicles Series, set at Camp Kioga in the fictional town of Avalon, New York.

After being dumped and fired, Kimberly Van Dorn goes to visit her mom, Penelope, in Avalon. Her mom has turned her home into a boarding house, which is now called Fairfield House. Kim is not sure about this in the beginning, but grows to love the people who are staying at Fairfield House. However, there's more to this story. Bo Crutcher got a girl (yolanda) pregnant 12 years ago, and has not been allowed to see his son, because of her, despite the fact that he has always sent money. Until one day, when he gets a call saying Yolanda has been to a detention center and it's quite possible she could be deported. He gets immediate custody of his son, AJ. AJ IS terrified of what is happening to his mother and it takes him awhile to warm up to Bo. Bo, meanwhile, is about to get his shot at the Majors. He hires Kimberly to do all of his Public Relations work for him. They eventually fall in love with each other and Bo wants to ask her to marry him .Right around this time, AJ gets an idea from researching on the internet, that if Bo marries Yolanda, that she will not be deported. Bo agrees to do this, as hard as it is to leave Kimberly behind. As sad as she feels, she understands, that AJ is the most important thing here.

So, Bo takes AJ back to Texas, and is ready to marry Yolanda. THEN, the private investigators discover that Yolanda's dad was in fact born in the U.S., so Yolanda does not have to be deported. So, Bo is free to marry Kimberly, and Yolanda and AJ move to Avalon so they can be closer to Bo.

My thoughts: The only thing I did not like about this book was the fact that all the characters from the previous books were hardly mentioned. My favorite character in this series is Daisy. I also really loved Olivia and her husband, and Jenny Majesky. My favorite part of this book was hearing how Bo's relationship with AJ progressed and how they became closer as time went on. I was not expecting the twist in the story at the end of the book, but I was so happy that Bo ended up being able to marry Kim. I hope the next book Lakeshore Christmas will start out with their wedding!! I didn't think I would like Kim so much in the beginning of the book, but I grew to really like her.

I finished this book on February 3rd, 2009.