The wishing bridge

Viola Shipman

Book - 2023

Workaholic Henrietta Wegner can feel her edge beginning to dull in middle age. Once the company's hottest mergers and acquisitions executive, Henri can see the ambitious and impossibly young up-and-comers gunning for her job. When her boss makes it clear she'll be starting the New Year unemployed unless she can close a big deal before the holidays, Henri impulsively tells him that she can convince her aging parents to sell Wegner's, their iconic Frankenmuth, Michigan, Christmas store, to a massive, soulless corporation. It's the kind of deal cool corporate Henri has built her career on. Home for the holidays has typically meant a perfunctory twenty-four-hour visit for Henri, then back to Detroit as fast as her car will d...rive her. So turning up at the Wegner's offices in early December raises some eyebrows: from her delighted, if puzzled, parents to her suspicious brother and curious childhood friends. But as Henri fields impatient texts from her boss while reconnecting with the magic of the store and warmth of her hometown, what sounded great in the boardroom begins to lose its luster in real life. She's running out of time to pull the trigger on what could be the greatest success of her career ... or the most awkward family holiday of her life. more