Mark Ruiz’s life is a structured routine full of well-worn grooves. Board meetings. Dinner with clients. Preparing presentations. Exhaustingly long days strung together over forty-one years of hard work. Retirement is the promise he makes to himself. The item on his list he can’t wait to check off.The problem? Retirement is better in theory than in practice. Three months in he realizes his new … his new phase of life is as stale as the slice of cake they sent him home with on his last day at the office. His newly purchased cabin on Jasmine Lake is supposed to be an oasis of relaxation. The place and time in his life he’s longed for. Rocking on the back porch overlooking the lake, he doesn’t find peace. Instead, he finds a pervasive kind of boredom he can’t seem to shake.
Just as he resigns himself to retirement, Mark receives a letter that could change everything. A glimpse at the life he could have had. But like most things involving family, it’s complicated. Dangerously so.
Gwen is faced with the yet another dilemma when finding her father means taking on his struggles. With Griff by her side, she will have to decide if not knowing is better than the burdens of discovering the truth.
Missing Pieces Series
Book1: The Bend in Redwood Road
Book 2: The Pier at Jasmine Lake
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A great read by Danielle Stewart. Reading the first book of this series sets you on the hunt to find Gwen biological mother then the 2nd book to find her biological father. Cannot wait to read the 3rd book in this series!
This just keeps getting better!!! I’d love to go to dinner at the Fox’s home ; I’d have a drink on the pier w/Mark in a heartbeat; pop into the college to visit Kerry ~ I like these people! I love their stories ~ but I’m still waiting (and wanting!) to see Paul implode!! He deserves so much that’s not happening!!! I do also like that if you stop reading before the Epilogue, you can walk away from the book, but if you want to know more . . . . keep reading! AWESOME!!!
Loved it…from cover to cover
The Pier At Jasmine Lake continues Gwen’s story as she searches for her biological father. In the last book The Bend in Redwood Road she located her biological mother with the help of her childhood friend, Griff. The two friends ditched family at the holidays for a spur of the moment research road trip. These characters are wonderful and real. All Ms. Stewart’s books have great story lines with well-written characters full of warmth and humor. The Redwood Road book left us wondering where Gwen and Griff’s relationship might lead after reuniting their friendship. The Jasmine Lake story makes us wonder if there’s a future relationship in store for her birth parents, Mark & Leslie. This new series is not to be missed. Every one of Danielle’s books is totally worth the read.
Hoping for $3 asap! Great series so far.
I loved this 2nd book in this series by Danielle Stewart! It is an excellent continuation of book one. The original characters are even more developed in this second book and the new characters introduced are strongly developed as well. It is easy to put oneself in the place of each character and see the developing story from their perspective. I love seeing how their stories are being interwoven….I can’t wait for book three! Awesome job, Danielle!
As the follow up to The Bend in Redwood Road, The Pier at Jasmine Lake continues with this emotional tale. After finding her biological mother, Gwen is now looking for her father. Her adoptive parents are apprehensive but are supporting her. In the journey to find her father Mark, she was led to the grandfather she wasn’t expecting.
This was another highly emotional story by Ms. Stewart. It continues from the first story seamlessly & in the same tone. Gwen is worried about disrupting the life of her biological father. After all, it didn’t work out so well with her mother. Several lives were torn apart. From the beginning, we start down one of several story lines existing simultaneously. Each line pulls your heart & your emotions in a different different as you are taken along on the journey.
The Pier at Jasmine Lake by Danielle Stewart is the second book in the Missing Pieces series. Mark Ruiz’s life has been a structured routine and after exhausting days and forty one years of hard work, he was looking forward to retirement. The only problem is retirement is better in theory than in actual practice. In three months, he realizes that retirement is as stale as old bread. His cabin on Jasmine Lake was supposed to be a place of relaxation but he can’t seem to find peace. Filled with boredom and resigned to the ins and outs of retirement, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. A glimpse into a life he could have had but dangerously complicated. As Gwen searches for her father, she faces another dilemma. Is she willing to be a part of his struggles as well? Is not knowing better than the burdens truth can bring?
The Pier at Jasmine Lake is a continuation of Gwen Fox’s adoption story and details the complexity of one’s journey to discovery of where they come from and the lives impacted when the story is revealed. Told between the perspectives of Gwen and Mark, we see both sides of Gwen’s journey to find her birth father and how Mark handles learning he had a daughter he didn’t know about. I enjoyed seeing that Gwen still struggled with her decision to find her birth parents, despite reassurances from her parents that her journey doesn’t change their feelings or her place in their family. Her continued struggle shows the reality of an adoptee’s search. That once the truth is discovered, it doesn’t mean life is sunshine and roses. There is still questions that Gwen struggles with and as she gets closer to who her father is, will she like what she finds? I recommend The Pier at Jasmine Lake.
The Pier at Jasmine Lake is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook.