The second in the "Bella Vista Chronicles" (after The Apple Orchard, 2013) focuses on Isabel Johansen, who was raised by her grandparents after her parents died. After Isabel's one venture into the world ends in violence, she comes home to Archangel, in beautiful Sonoma County, CA. She wants to transform the family home into a destination cooking school, using local foods, including honey from her own hives. Then she mistakes Cormac O'Neill for a beekeeper, and ends up taking the allergic man to the local clinic after he's stung. Isabel doesn't know Mac is there to write her grandfather's biography. It's Magnus Johansen's powerful account of his role in the Danish Resistance that forces Isabel to face her own past. The woman who saw a cooking school as her only dream might finally dare to reach for love. Wiggs successfully combines a contemporary romance and a family saga with a dramatic story of resistance as she alternates Isabel's story with her grandfather's account of his loss of family and fight to save the Jews in his native Denmark. The beauty of Bella Vista stands in sharp contrast to the bleakness of the Danish landscape under the Nazis. VERDICT This novel is highly recommended for those who appreciate women's fiction with a historical backstory.—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Wiggs's second in her Bella Vista Chronicles series (The Apple Orchard) juggles a modern love story with a heart-pounding chronicle of the Danish resistance in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen, creating a dazzling intergenerational tale of courage and hope. No-frills, 30-year-old Isabelle Johansen is busy organizing the opening of her cooking school, a new beekeeping business, and the wedding of her half-sister, Tess. She's doing all this from her grandparents' mission-style hacienda and farm in Sonoma, but gets thrown off balance by the handsome, globe-trotting journalist Cormac O'Neill. He's arrived to interview Isabelle's grandfather, Magnus, for a biography about his youth thwarting the Nazi occupation, protecting Jewish families, and his ultimate flight to America. The attraction between Isabelle and Cormac is immediate, but Isabelle's cautious heart won't open until she reconciles with the loss of parents she never knew – and confronts a violent lover who broke her trust and confidence. It will be Magnus's story of bravery, along with that of his late Jewish wife, Eva, and her best friend and resistance fighter Annelise–who bears a baby for the childless couple–that will help Isabelle finally face her own fears. Isabelle and Cormac's love story plays out sweetly. What makes this moving narrative so memorable is the fearlessness of families and friends who find strength in each other through the horrors of war and loss. The revelation of Isabelle's new family links with her dead mother and her father preview Wiggs's next installment. (July)

Wiggs's second in her Bella Vista Chronicles series (The Apple Orchard) juggles a modern love story with a heart-pounding chronicle of the Danish resistance in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen, creating a dazzling intergenerational tale of courage and hope. No-frills, 30-year-old Isabelle Johansen is busy organizing the opening of her cooking school, a new beekeeping business, and the wedding of her half-sister, Tess. She's doing all this from her grandparents' mission-style hacienda and farm in Sonoma, but gets thrown off balance by the handsome, globe-trotting journalist Cormac O'Neill. He's arrived to interview Isabelle's grandfather, Magnus, for a biography about his youth thwarting the Nazi occupation, protecting Jewish families, and his ultimate flight to America. The attraction between Isabelle and Cormac is immediate, but Isabelle's cautious heart won't open until she reconciles with the loss of parents she never knew – and confronts a violent lover who broke her trust and confidence. It will be Magnus's story of bravery, along with that of his late Jewish wife, Eva, and her best friend and resistance fighter Annelise–who bears a baby for the childless couple–that will help Isabelle finally face her own fears. Isabelle and Cormac's love story plays out sweetly. What makes this moving narrative so memorable is the fearlessness of families and friends who find strength in each other through the horrors of war and loss. The revelation of Isabelle's new family links with her dead mother and her father preview Wiggs's next installment. (July)