Annie Taylor, a single mother of two, caregiver of her elderly father, owner of Annie's Lodge, a 24-cottage resort on the shores of Ril Lake, needs help. Struggling to put food on the table and keep the debt collectors at bay, Annie feels pulled from all sides. All she really wants is for someone to take care of her for a change. She could marry Luke McCann, her handyman who has much more than repair and maintenance on his mind, but that would mean giving up her dream.
When Joe Hewitt, his nephew and their gorgeous Burmese, Max, book a ten-day Christmas vacation in one of Annie's cottages, Joe is full of ideas about how she can make her property pay, and Annie wonders if he just might be the answer she's been hoping for; for the lodge and for herself.
Before she can decide if either of these two men is right for her, Annie must do some digging into her own past. Why have her migraines returned and why is she forgetting things again? Could the accident she was in, five years ago, that took her husband's life, be part of the problem? As forgotten memories gradually bring new truths, and Annie begins to put the pieces of her past together, the world as she knows it begins to crumble.
Joe seems to share her vision, and he's certainly willing to help, but then, so is Luke, in his own way. Which of these two men will be what Annie truly needs?
Set in the beautiful Muskoka region of Northern Ontario, One Winter at Ril Lake is the 2nd stand-alone novel, in the Muskoka Cottage Novel Series by Margery Reynolds.