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Susan Wiggs

Biography

Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs' life is all about family, friends…and fiction. She’s been featured in the national media, including NPR, PRI and USA Today, has given programs for the US Embassies in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and is a popular speaker locally, nationally, internationally and on the high seas.

From the very start, Susan's writings have illuminated the everyday dramas of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family and the fascinating nuances of human nature. Today, she is an international bestselling, award-winning author, with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries and languages. According to Publishers Weekly, Wiggs writes with "refreshingly honest emotion," and the Salem Statesman Journal adds that she is "one of our best observers of stories of the heart [who] knows how to capture emotion on virtually every page of every book." Booklist characterizes her books as "real and true and unforgettable."

Her novels have appeared in the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list, and have captured readers’ hearts around the globe with translations into more than 20 languages and 30 countries. Susan's recent novel, THE APPLE ORCHARD, was made into a Hallmark movie called The Secrets of Bella Vista, and The Lakeshore Chronicles has been optioned for adaptation into a series.

Susan is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book. She lives on an island in Puget Sound, where she is working on her new novel, WAYWARD GIRLS, which will be in bookstores in the spring of 2025.

Books by Susan Wiggs

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

A year after breaking up with her husband, Brenda Malloy has put her life back together. She has found purpose and healing as a volunteer with a dog rescue organization in Houston, Texas. The rescue partners with a program in Avalon, New York, a small, snowy town deep in the Catskills. Now Brenda is arranging the transport of rescued dogs from Houston to Avalon. Brenda’s friends worry about her driving a van 2,000 miles with 12 dogs in crates, but she shrugs off their concern. However, a blinding snowstorm, an escaped mutt, and a life-saving encounter with Adam Bellamy --- a single dad and paramedic --- means that Brenda has to stay in Avalon longer than she planned. As she drops off each precious pup at their new homes, some of the comfort and joy of the season begins to creep up on Brenda.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

In idyllic Alara Cove, a California beach town, it’s graduation day at the elite Thornton Academy. At Thornton, the students are the worldly and overindulged children who live in gated enclaves with spectacular views. But the class valedictorian is Nikki Graziola, a surfer’s daughter who is there on scholarship. To the shock of everyone in the audience, Nikki veers off script while giving her commencement address and reveals a secret that breaks open the whole community. Her accusation shakes the foundation of Alara Cove, pitting her against the wealthy family whose money runs the town. Her new notoriety sends Nikki into exile for years, where she finds fame --- but not fortune --- overseas as a competition surfer...until a personal tragedy compels her to return to Alara Cove.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Jerome “Sugar” Barnes learned the art of baking in his grandma’s bakery, also called Sugar, on historic Perdita Street in San Francisco. He supplies baked goods to the Lost and Found Bookshop across the street. When the restaurant that shares his commercial kitchen loses its longtime tenant, a newcomer moves in: Margot Salton, a barbecue master from Texas. Margot isn’t exactly on the run, but she needs a fresh start. She’s taken care of herself her whole life, and her dream has been to open a restaurant somewhere far, far from Texas. Margot instantly takes to Jerome’s grandmother, the lively, opinionated Ida. The older woman proves to be a good mentor, and Margot is drawn to Jerome. But just as she starts to relax into a happy new future, Margot’s past in Texas comes back to haunt her.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, who has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem --- Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations, from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future and her own heart.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Caroline Shelby thought she’d left Oysterville, Washington, forever. Ten years ago, Caroline launched a career in the glamorous world of fashion. But her success imploded on a wave of scandal, forcing her to flee to the only safe place she knows. And in the backseat of her car are two children who were orphaned in a single chilling moment: five-year-old Addie and six-year-old Flick. She’s now their legal guardian --- a role she’s not sure she’s ready for. Caroline returns to the sewing shop where she first discovered her passion, and discovers that even in an idyllic beach town, there are women living with the deepest of secrets. Thus begins the Oysterville Sewing Circle --- where women can join forces to support one another through the troubles they keep hidden.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Caught between two worlds, Caleb Stoltz is bound by a deathbed promise to raise his orphaned niece and nephew in Middle Grove, where life revolves around family, farm and faith. When disaster strikes, Caleb is thrust into an urban environment of high-tech medicine and the relentless rush of modern life. Dr. Reese Powell lives for the addictive rush of saving lives. But when a shocking accident brings Caleb into her life, Reese is forced to deal with a situation that challenges everything she thinks she knows --- and ultimately emboldens her to question her most powerful beliefs. Then one impulsive act brings about a clash of cultures in a tug-of-war that plays out in a courtroom, challenging the very nature of justice and reverberating through generations.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Widowed by an unspeakable tragedy, Camille Palmer has made her peace with the past and settled into the quiet safety of life with her teenage daughter, Julie, in a sleepy coastal town. Then the arrival of a mysterious package breaks open the door to her family’s secret past. In uncovering a hidden history, Camille has no idea that she’s embarking on an adventure that will utterly transform her. Camille, Julie and Camille’s father return to the French town of his youth, sparking unexpected memories --- recollections that will lead them back to the dark days of the Second World War. And it is in the stunning Provençal countryside that they will uncover their family’s surprising history.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction

The producer of a popular television cooking show, Annie Harlow loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. But in an instant, her life is shattered. When Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost. Grieving and wounded, she retreats to her old family home. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, she slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago. With the discovery of a cookbook her grandmother wrote in the distant past, Annie unearths an age-old mystery that might prove the salvation of the family farm.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past. But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to dig up old history.

written by Susan Wiggs, read by Christina Traister - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past. But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to dig up old history.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Holiday, Romance

Logan O'Donnell is a single father determined to create the perfect Christmas for his son, Charlie. The entire O'Donnell clan arrives to spend the holidays in Avalon, and one of the guests is Darcy Fitzgerald, a newcomer to Willow Lake. Even though she’s the last person Logan can see himself falling for, and Darcy is convinced that a relationship is the last thing she needs this Christmas, their two lonely hearts collide.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction

Tess Delaney loves illuminating history; returning stolen treasures to their rightful owners and filling the spaces in people’s hearts with stories of their family legacies. But Tess’ own history is filled with gaps. Then the enigmatic Dominic Rossi arrives on her San Francisco doorstep with the news that the grandfather she’s never met is in a coma and that she’s destined to inherit half of a hundred-acre apple orchard estate called Bella Vista. The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen, the half-sister she never knew she had.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction, Romance

Sonnet Romano is leading a seemingly perfect life until her mother drops the news that she’s expecting and the pregnancy is high risk. Sonnet feels compelled to put everything else on hold and return home to Avalon. Although she plans to pick up her life where she left off once her mother is out of danger, a devastating diagnosis is given, forcing Sonnet to make life-altering decisions.

by Susan Wiggs - Fiction

Fabric shop-owner Linda Davis is torn between excitement and heartache as her only child prepares for college. On the journey to Molly’s new school, Linda compiles scraps from throughout Molly’s life to create a meaningful gift.