FUTURE PLANS

In this romantic suspense novel, an event planner’s organized life gets thrown into disarray when her daughter becomes endangered.

After high school, Hazel Lavigne left her home in York, Maine, for college in Southern Florida. Everything was going according to plan until her senior year, when a one-night stand at a fraternity party left her with a surprise pregnancy. Ever since, she’s been careful to control her life and leave nothing to chance. Now in her early 30s, Hazel runs a very successful event-planning business, personally overseeing every detail of her clients’ shindigs. That doesn’t leave her much time to spend with 10-year-old Eleanor—Ellie to most, Lightning to the admiring players on her flag football team, where she’s the only girl. Gabrielle Davis is Hazel’s live-in nanny/lifesaver. Though Ellie has fun with Gabby, she wishes she had a dad and that her mother didn’t work so hard. (Hazel’s cover story is that she and Ellie’s dad met on a cruise and never saw each other again.) At a bar, Hazel meets Russell Cooper—and although her memory is foggy, he looks familiar. She’s sure he’s Ellie’s father; he was at the frat party, so he agrees it’s possible. When Ellie is kidnapped from school by a man claiming to be her father, Hazel suspects Russ. Although he’s innocent and Ellie is soon recovered, Hazel is deeply shaken. In addition, Gabby is missing, and the case has ties to organized crime. Hazel takes Ellie to Maine for safekeeping, giving her time to spend with her daughter and reassess her work-centered life. A new romance blooms, but past secrets and present schemes related to the kidnapping threaten mother and daughter. In the end, Hazel discovers what home really means to her.

In Book 2 of her Maine-set Nubble Light series, Lee offers skillful plotting that unveils several surprises readers won’t see coming, both in the thriller and romance departments. While certainly unexpected, these revelations are plausible and well paced throughout the story, giving an effective counterpoint to Hazel’s character arc as she stops trying to control everything and embraces a new romance. Less successful is an early subplot set in 1971 that gets more room than it needs, and although it does link up with present-day events, the book’s rhythm is somewhat thrown off. A few elements strike odd notes, such as a ’70s polyester leisure suit being considered “fancy” and 10-year-olds making that toddler specialty, mud desserts. Nevertheless, such moments are few, and the author generally chooses more telling details. She has a good ear for dialogue, for example, as when Hazel’s friend and wedding-cake baker, Franny Gilbert, reports that she “had a fight today with some chocolate fondant, but other than that, living the dream.” The Maine setting is appealing, and another plus is the novel’s varied points of view and differing voices, giving readers fresh takes on events.

An entertaining thriller with some intriguing twists and turns.