Retreat to Woodhaven — Jacie Middlemann

Retreat to Woodhaven is the second book in The Hills of Burlington series. It is a story of family, both the one we were born with and those we meet along the way.

Jake Kyle needed to get away and never more so than now. The political quagmire that he's help to bring to a boil is about to land on his doorstep. Under normal circumstances he'd be more than happy to take his critics on face to face and had done just that more than once over the years. And more than once he had been the one to walk away smiling. But this time in the midst of everything he's embroiled in he has other far more important things to take care of. People who need him in ways they never had before. Family who counted on him though would never admit it. One person in particular who he was not about to let down if he's given a chance to make amends.

Barely twenty-four hours later, after a few phone calls and only hours before his scathing exposé is scheduled to be published nationally, he's on his way to the city of his youth. If there was anywhere in the world he'd want to start over with, take a chance on a new beginning, it would be along the stretch of the Mississippi River his ancestors had long called home. And like other family members had before him he's going back home to Burlington.

But Jake knew he wouldn't be able to lay low for long. Several best-selling books had made both his face and name recognizable to many. The war-time reporting he'd done for the long years before that didn't do much to aid in his desire for privacy. For either himself or his family.

Now he was making his way to the only place he knew where who you were had more to do with who your parents and grandparents were before you. A place where your value was the weight of your word and not the contents of your wallet. He needed all that now almost as much as he needed time. And he was willing to take whatever time he could get.

He couldn't help but feel grateful that his cousin Mary had recently returned to Burlington and seemed to be collecting houses the way others collected shoes. He'd snapped up her offer to stay in the most recent of her purchases that just happen to be down the street from where she now lived in the home that once belonged to their grandmother. And it wasn't a coincidence that his new residence was the house another cousin, also a new resident of Burlington, had grown up in. Connections. They were all around him. As was family. For the first time in his life he welcomed them instead of avoiding the complications they could often bring. And unless his usually reliable instincts were way off another one was about to find their way to Burlington…and him. One he welcomed. One he'd waited for longer than he cared to admit but also one he never expected would actually come to pass. But their arrival is spurred by tragedy. One that he would give anything to have been able to prevent.

Retreat to Woodhaven is a story of family. Both the family we're born into and grow up with and the family we find along the way. It is the story of where we go when we need support in our best and worst moments. Where we turn to when life throws all it can at us. And then more. And we find that the where we go is really the who we go to. Family. Jake Kyle knows in coming home to Burlington he is coming home to family. Some who have found their way once again to the city just as he is and others who are long gone but still strong in spirit in the city they loved.

Retreat to Woodhaven, the second in the Hills of Burlington series, is the continuing saga of six contemporary women, their family and friends, of different generations but drawn together at a time when all are at a crossroad in their lives…and searching for something they've not yet found.