The Whispering Pines Inn

In this book you will travel to a northern Michigan town that is still charming and rustic, and brilliantly captures lives that have been marked by loss, perseverance, an abiding faith and the love of friends and family as it sojourns between sentiment and satire. You will hear an unaccustomed rhythm in the voices of the Whispering Pines Inn as it is recounted here in loving detail. Cynthia Williams delivers an unforgettable story about an unforgettable boy and girl coming of age pre-World War II America in East Jordan Michigan along the shores of Lake Charlevoix and Lake Michigan. It's 1963 now, and Maggie inherits the ramshackle Inn.

Cynthia Williams gives her readers, and her characters, precisely what they crave--excitement, insight, joy, humor, hard reality, surprise, loyalty, hope, closure and a sweet but uncompromising view of human nature. This book is filled with complicated characters and convergent back stories.

Passionate long-lost loves, war, hard times, Burt's short-lived career as a bra fitter at Lane Bryant's, Zoshia's confidence game, Johanna the geologist and the Nystrom bar scene, Louie's Shuttle service, a high spirited 4th of July parade, no questions asked smelt dipping, classic cars, uplifting fishing folklore, a tormented chef, wild escapades at a Venetian Festival, frantic adolescents and college students whose brazen and covert late night activities teach them the sobering features of young adulthood, quirky guests and locals with complicated but redeemable characters and Maggie and Burt, who stand in the center of it all.

In Maggie and Burt we recognize the best and hardest aspects of youth, the fascination and fear of unrequited love, and our own first loves. The author leads her heroine and hero into adulthood while inspiring readers with deeply moving history, plot twists and inexhaustibly entertaining characters in a fantastically imagined world.